petitefrancaise

I need some minor surgery next week ( except I'm milking it for all it's worth at home.... )

I'm still not used to seeing astronomical medical bills and I've palpitations today seeing the ones for next week.

The hospital bill for a 45 min outpatient surgery says:
Total charge $10, 200
Expected total payment $2534.

So, my insurance company also thinks they're taking the mickey as well....

But does anyone actually pay these enormous amounts?

sir_eccles

Just numbers on a piece of paper. Everyone pays something different. The insurance company will have a negotiated rate for the procedure different to the full quote price and the difference just disappears. Even if you walked in off the street with no insurance you would be able to haggle a different price.

Think of it like hotel rates. There is the rack rate which no-one pays, then you come in with your AAA card different rate, booked on Hotels.com different rate...

jjmb

What is the surgery for?

wtkp0u

There are sites that claim to tell you what a procedure should cost, like FH Consumer Cost Lookup. Most procedures are assigned standard billing codes so that in theory you can compare. It's complex enough that you can take a degree in medical billing.

Jerni

You might get one or 2 other bills from the hospital as well. One from the anesthesiologist and possibly one for any biopsy work.

I had some surgery on my nose a couple of years ago, the cost was shocking.

Total hospital bill was just over $23,000. Just the use of the surgical room was something like $11,000, it worked out to $130/minute! They charged $36 for 2 Vicodin lol. No doubt the rent for the warm blanket I was given during pre-op was $100.

Then there was separate $900 anesthesiologist bill and a $250 pathology bill. My surgeon billed around $4000 but after network discounts, contracted rates only got around $1100. Disgraceful.

My out of pocket was $0 - we had an HRA at the time and since we never really got sick there was more than enough to cover any out of pocket costs.

petitefrancaise

Actually I got it wrong... the doctor's bill before network reductions was $10,200. The hospitals was $28,000!!!! for a 30-45 minute surgery....Insurance reductions brings it down to $3, 800. Go figure.

My son had surgery earlier in the year so I'm getting used to the different bills coming through. I didn't understand all the stuff then, I just phoned up aetna and asked if I had to pay it.

I have a rotator cuff tear. Tripped up whilst out running and landed badly on my shoulder. As my lovely son said - "It's because you're old you got hurt, I'd be OK". Sometimes I think it's a good job TX has the death penalty!!

My youngest daughter was born in France and had to spend 5 days in a brand new, brilliant NICU. Total cost was about €3500 ($5000) which we didn't have to pay.

Ah well, we paid for it many times over with the payments taken out for social charges etc in France.

Pulaski

I was billed nearly that much five years ago for minor skin surgery and treatment for blood poisoning, but at least I got three nights in hospital out of the deal!

Amie06

I had 3 nights in IC at Atlanta for mini stroke (TIA), total cost $83,000, thank god for travel insurance.

Jerni

It's crazy. I forget to mention I was in hospital for a grand total of just over 4hrs.

Michael

Before I retired in 2001, my company provided insurance always paid 100% of the premium, deductible was zero, copay was low including drugs, many services had zero copay including lab work, and during that time we had two kids and my total out of pocket costs over 40 years was less than $1,000 total. Until people have to pay more than a token fee for medical, they often don't realize the true cost of medical services.

One of the biggest costs in the US is for people over 60 and that is the biggest difference between medical costs in the US and other countries but since most people have Medicare, they don't realize how much all those services cost (see chart below).

GeoffM

I had a CT scan a few weeks ago. The bill was for $2300. The actual, realistic cost of CT scans is more like $230. No payment from me but crazy nonetheless.

Back in the UK I had eye surgery, a 2-hour op under general anaesthetic, overnight stay, etc. I can't quite remember the exact cost but it was certainly under £1000 for everything. Though done privately, it was done in an NHS hospital, and their portion of the bill - operating theatre, staff, bed & breakfast - was laughably low.

Michael

I suspect the NHS assumes that if they charged the real cost, very few would opt for private health insurance. Whether private or NHS service, the NHS has the same costs but when someone purchases private insurance, the NHS gets a partial payment for the services.

scrubbedexpat091

Back in 2003 I spent a week in the hospital nothing major. The bill was 30,000 dollars. I never paid the bill and was insured at the time, but it became this massive legal fight between me, the hospital, the doctor, and insurance company. In the end when I went for legal options, the lawyer gave me 2 options, fight the insurance company and rack up large legal bills, or file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, so that is what happened. Sucked cause it wasn't my fault, and it should have been covered, but gotta go with the least costly option when dealing with insurance companies and hospitals.

I don't have the bill anymore, but some of the charges were just idiotic things like:

Gloves 26 @ 1.60 each

Tylenol 2 @ 3.00 each

It was like 12 page bill of every single possible thing they could itemize they did.

I am surprised the nurses even have time to keep track of how many gloves they used.

The thing I could never figure out were the bills from doctors I had never met, not sure where they came into the picture.

audio

The question I keep asking myself is ‘how have they managed to get away with these extortionate rates for so long?’

I tried in vain to sort out a better deal by asking Healthcare.gov for their advice. 3 calls, totalling 3hours 7mins, achieved nothing mainly due to continuing problems with the site’s software unable to access and modify my files. What a joke, a complete shambles IMHO.

petitefrancaise

OMG, this is everyone's nightmare I'm sure. It's right out of "Sicko". I think I would've been so sickened by that, I'd have left the country. You're obviously made of stronger stuff.