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I had a little laser hole put in my eye to keep pressure at the lens from ever getting too high. They did a 10 minute inspection, then some drops to numb and dilate, then 45 minutes later, shot a laser into my eye....an explosion of red as you might expect.
Sure this takes a decade of medical training, equipment, skill. But it is like 20 total minutes and material cost of a few dollars. They charged $1700 to medical insurance (not vision insurance, this is medical insurance), the insurance said the procedure was worth just $800.
Leaving $900. The eye clinic then told me they wrote off $800, leaving me with a $100 bill times 2 for 2 eyes. The eye clinic stated that the insurance company "directed them to charge the rest to me", at which point I got pretty pissed and even started swearing.
I indicated that the insurance company can't "direct" them to do anything in regards to me. I also told him that was bullshit, that it was a false argument, a type of "appeal to authority" as if the big insurance company said something, so therefore it is good and just and legally binding. Bully on that.
I was never informed of the cost prior to the procedure.
I was never informed of the technical term of the procedure, not in writing anyway. I think they told me verbally, but without an eye medical background, those are just words that go in one ear and out the other.
Point of that? There is no way I could go to my insurance and ask them about the financials related to the procedure.
Without the laser hole procedure, they couldn't inspect the retina, they couldn't dilate enough without risk of over-pressurization, and therefore a good eye examine (not vision exam) could not be done. So it was really necessary.
So, car dealers are held to a higher standard?
They have to give you a written estimate.
But here is the additional point. It is just a game to max out every transaction. They charge double, get a high but fair payment from insurance, and then pretend to "write off" 85% of the remaining, and they figure that it costs $5 to send an invoice, but they have a chance of getting $200.
And then they threatened me with going to collections. I doubt they will for $200.
I asked the caller to send my comments to the management. I told them that there is NO WAY that the average person could possibly understand their own insurance, and that it was on THEM to know my insurance and be able to advise on any costs beyond the standard co-pay, which I also paid, I think very fair to me at $20 a visit for specialists. The guy at the eye clinic, did not get his name, stated that if they called the insurance company that the insurance company would refuse to tell them anything due to "privacy concerns". I call bullshit!
We need a Big Tech and a Big Med BILL OF RIGHTS.
Sympathy! Empathy! All the best wishes the domain of Modern Medicine permits! Each permit comes at a cost, though, as each of us has had occasion to appreciate!
ReplyDeletePresident Eisenhower inexplicably warned at the end of his run -- as general, having destroying lives and livelihood of millions, including hundreds of thousands of people in Germany alone -- of a "military-industrial complex" (MIC). After FDR's subterfuge, treason, and confiscation of gold, long after Abraham (!) Lincoln's treachery, one has to rank Eisenhower's "warning" as a quintessential "limited hang-out".
Today, we have a medical-industrial complex (MeIC), married at the hip to the ol' MIC. Toss in bioweaponry, can you see a difference between "COVID-19" and vaccines?