Of course our system is broke. Blame the insurance companies and greedy hospitals. My brother in law is self employeed and makes six figures a year. His wife just had a child and they dont have insurance because he found its cheaper to pay out of pocket. When they had the child in the hospital, without insurance just for the delievery it was going to cost him $30K. When he told the hospital he could pay cash if they would give him a discount, they dropped the bill to $5K. What a ripoff our system is. Insurance companies are a scam

No worries, Obamacare will fix all of those problems......

No, it will just solve the problem of poor people having the risk of not having health insurance, all this is done in in a market friendly way (I.E., the right people still get the tons of money that they always have been getting).

I'm glad we have free health care in NZ, that must really hurt.

Very sorry to hear, Magnum. And yes, I agree that these prices are ridiculous.

When it rains, it pours... Just heard a warrant has been issued for her arrest... DUI... My concern now is that I beleave, and rightfully so IMO, that insurance won't pay any if crime committed while doing it...

But I didn't use my car insurance, used medical... So maybe I'm wrong.

Magnum sorry to hear of medical costs and the problems you and your daughter are facing. And also sorry to talk politics, in the end at least your daughter is alive to the tale however much the tale sucks.

Wait...you mean she was intoxicated on the scooter at the time of the accident?

That sucks Magnum, I'm sorry to hear it. I would think medical would still pay, but I doubt auto would. Medical shouldn't care, they cover the person, not the circumstances.

Crap. Sorry Mag. Wonder if the Aussie healthcare system covers vasectomies, because I sure as hell don't want kids. Oh wait, I'm married, I never have sex anyway. All good.

That's a bunch of #%&*$# though. $56K for ER...

I had a minor procedure on my foot once in Texas, when it came time to pay for it, it was actually cheaper to not have insurance. I was like WTF, you mean because I don't have insurance, it's actually cheaper for me than for someone who DOES have insurance? So they're paying MORE on top of paying the insurance premiums? Cost me like $200.

Another example is I had pretty significant dental surgery in May. (in Australia, with no coverage) And it maybe cost me $5000-6000. That included surgeon's fee, anathesiologist's (sp?) fee, hospital fee etc. I shudder to think what it would have cost in America.

I was in the Hospital two years ago for Bronchitis.

I paid my copay (over $1,600) and when it's all said and done, I still received bills from the person who looked at my X-Ray results ($285 after my insurance and I'd already paid over $450 to the hospital's Radiology department) and a physician ($696) who examined me for about 5 min.

I was told those 2 people were contracted to the Hospital but their services are not included in the hospital bill and my insurance doesn't cover them.

The bill I received for the physician came from an office in Philadelphia and I went to the Hospital here in Plano, TX.

I was suspicious of that bill.

I thought it was a scam.

But after further research, it was real.

Why would a physician who contracts his services out to a hospital in Plano, TX use a Philadelphia address to send out bills for his service?

Very sorry to hear about the legal complications of your matter...maybe some aquaintances you get in your job could help you to soften your trouble ? or here at SimHQ ?

Are you still string down the barrel of losing one's man cave Mag?
You might be able to turn this to one's advantage?

(Let the evil scheming commence. Mwhahahaha!
Remember you are the head of the house!)

what would have happened if you never had insurance?

Most likely she would have been treated at the nearest county (public) hospital and the bill would be paid in installments. That's standard operating procedure with most uninsured cases.

You see, there's something wrong with all that, because from my experience having to pay cash when my medicare card was expired - money I was refunded when it was renewed - all of that would probably total about $300 tops here.

I think an x-ray here, if you have to pay because your medicare card is expired, is less than $50. A standard doctor's visit is also in the $50 (or less) range unless things get complicated.

The plot thickens. Sorry to hear about you and your problems with this. Hope it works out for you. This is making me dread the coming teen years of the new generation.

Damn Magnum, sorry to hear, hope things work out somehow.

This is going to sound crass - but are you financially responsible, or is she? Was she out of the house -- not living with you -- at the time of the accident?

WC

Magnum, you need to call the hospital/physician office(s), etc... and negotiate what to pay them. I have worked at six hospital and everyone of them discounted self pay balances. Our patient population is older and able to pay better than most but we only ever collect about 5% on Self Pay balances. In the past I've seen people setup payment plans for $1/mo (that's not a typo) on $35,000 bills. You probably won't be able to get away with that anymore but $25 or $50/mo is possible.

You health insurance should still pay the bill when you auto insurance wouldn't. I'd be a little surprised if your insurance doesn't have an Out of Pocket that limits what you have to pay before they pay 100%. Mine for example pays 80% (in network) and I am responsible for 20% up to $3000. After that the insurance pays 100% for the rest of the year. That's medical. My dental insurance sucks but that is different.

There are pretty complex formulas on how charges are calculated and we contract out to third parties what we charge for services. They're weighted on the complexity of the services each hospital offers. When Medicare pays a set rate for a visit based on your diagnosis. If it costs the hospital more than that to care for the patient they loose money. If it costs less...which is unusual, the hospital makes money. Medicaid pays about 30% of charges. The rest of the charges are usually adjusted off. The United States Healthcare system is going thru some pretty significant changes with the Affordable Care Act effective October 2013 and switching from ICD9 to ICD10 coding which means we going from 3,000 diagnosis codes to 97,000 diagnosis codes effective October 2014. Which means the government will have significantly more ways to deny payment for "coding" errors.

I read one comment on how "greedy" hospitals are. Hospitals usually loose money. This year we actually turned a 2.2% profit in our little non-profit hospital and it was the best fiscally this hospital ever did. Its interesting how if someone was build a house they wouldn't bat an eye at paying electricians, plumbers, builders etc... separately for their services but expect it to be different at a hospital. Doctors perform services at hospital, they usually don't work for them. However, that again is changing with the ARRA act (which is different that the Affordable Care Act). It's sort of "encouraging" physicians to partner with hospitals to upgrade their systems or they will eventually be penalized with lower payments from Medicare.

I have always felt that self pay patients always got screwed the most on their bills if they didn't negotiate and paid in full. That said, 95% of our self pay patients do not pay and we don't put a lien on them. Most do go to collections but I'm sure most are used to the calls even if we get a legitimate phone number from them.

This is for a non-profit hospital. I'm not sure how for-profit hospitals work but I wouldn't work for one because I don't feel like healthcare should be a money making business in principal.

Just make a phone call an negotiate. The absolute worst that can happen is you remain in the situation you are in now.