The $17,850 Urine Test, folks: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/19/healt...ner/index.html
Somehow this woman's dad, a doctor himself, chose to pay $5,000 of it, fearing a hit on her credit.
Being a doctor, he should have known this was a scam, and should have refused to pay. (He now says he regrets paying.)
He feared the hit against her daughter's credit, not realizing that in most cases, companies will forgive black marks on your credit if they're medical-related (for exactly this reason).
So what happened here?
This was the "lab scam", which goes as follows:
- Shady doctor orders an unnecessary (or mostly unnecessary) test, and suggests patient visits a nearby lab
- Patient doesn't check if lab takes their insurance, or lab lies to patient and claims they do, when they actually don't
- Patient is forced to sign standard-looking paperwork, promising to pay for all tests done there
- Lab now has a blank check to bill patient for many times the going rate of the tests, and patient is legally responsible
- Lab threatens to hurt patient's credit and/or sue them if they don't pay
- Lab ultimately agrees to "settlement" with patient, which is still many, many times more than the going rate for the test
This same urine test should have been under $200, and under $100 in many cases. Here it was almost $18,000.
How does this scam work so well?
Because medical billing in the US is a "black box", meaning that the patient rarely knows the cost of any test or procedure until AFTER it's done.
Also, any "out of network" doctor, hospital, medical facility, or lab can charge what they want, and the patient will be legally responsible for it.
The only price control comes when the provider is "in network", but even then, the prices can still be unexpectedly high for seemingly simply tests/procedures, and the patient is still responsible for a lot of money if they have a large deductible.
Healthcare is the only industry in the US where the customer doesn't know the cost of what he's buying until after he buys it (and is legally responsible to pay for it!)
This is wrong, wrong, wrong!
Some of you will say socialized medicine is the answer.
NO!
This will simply shift the bill from the individual patient to the government, and we will all pay for these scams through our taxes.
What about price controls, such as what's done with Medicare?
That will prevent outrageous overcharges like this, but still won't prevent unnecessary expensive tests and procedures, which is actually the more lucrative and common scam than the "overcharge patient without insurance" scam.
Neither party seems to give a shit about the COST of healthcare and the terrible, opaque billing system. Republicans want the patients to pay. Democrats want the government to pay. It's a shell game, where the problem remains, but the one paying for it switches around.
Sad!
I actually have a few solutions to this:
1) Make this "in-network"/"out-of-network" price differential illegal. Require that all facilities which take insurance charge all patients the same amount for the same procedures. The only difference between "in network" and "out of network" will be the amount the insurance actually pays. Only providers taking NO insurance should have the right to charge what they want, and this needs to be clearly disclosed to and signed for by the patient.
2) Other than true emergencies, an ESTIMATE OF COST OF SERVICES, including insurance coverage, needs to be provided to each patient prior to service. This should not be difficult to do in 2018, after some initial change to the way billing systems interface with insurance companies.
3) Clamp down hard on medical fraud, with stiff jail sentences and automatic loss of licenses.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Hockey Guy
