Insurance rant

I actually just got an explanation of benefits from my insurance company detailing a claim from my family doctor.

I went to go have a cough checked out. She saw me for less than 10 minutes.

Charged insurance $129.

I wish i made $774/hr.

Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement therapy....$310.00 Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement.......$71.00

Best we were able to figure was that they brought my brother a slab of green jello.

egnorant wrote: Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement therapy....$310.00 Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement.......$71.00 Best we were able to figure was that they brought my brother a slab of green jello.

Gatorade, baby. Or else the stuff you buy at Walgreens for about $4.00.

egnorant wrote: Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement therapy....$310.00 Electrolyte replacement nutritional supplement.......$71.00 Best we were able to figure was that they brought my brother a slab of green jello.

or maybe a bottle of this:

.... and me thinks they charge extra for using words over 10 letters in their diagnosis and treatment

The thing that gets me the most, is somehow even though I "supposedly" have pretty good insurance, and always use in-network doctors, I always end up with another bill, after the co-pay, asking to pay more money.

dollraves said:I thought I was going to have a heart attack...would I have to come up with the other $40k?? Then I noticed the "Amount saved by using a network provider: $40,832.82"

On one hand, WHEW! On the other... SERIOUSLY? We expect people without insurance to cough up $45k but with insurance only $5k?

No.  "We expect people without insurance to cough up $5-10k before they default/file bankuptcy, so we just make E36 M3 up so we can claim the unpaid amount as a loss."  Straight from people who worked in the medical bill-collecting/inventing field.

This is 100% why I am in favor of nationalizing medical care.  Not "nationalizing insurance", which would be just another way for corporate interests to suck the teat of tax dollars,  but socializing medical care entirely.

I've been on the E36 M3 end of this equation.  To paraphrase Chris Rock, I'm not saying that imprisoning CEOs/managers after confiscating their businesses is right...  but I understand.

In reply to Knurled. :

Preach brother. 

Why is this 7 year old thread back? Was there a canoe here? 

Wow, old post resurrected but no watercraft in sight.

While we're there tho... That supplier in the OP got dropped like a hot potato when I changed jobs and bennies. Their customer service always sucked when I needed something but they crawled up my ass when they wanted something. Obnoxiously rude. Good riddance motherberkeleyers.

Went through two medical suppliers for CPAP supplies after that were totally useless. Only settled on the third because they had a local office that I could get supplies from if I was in a bind. Still SNAFU tho, I have boxes of stuff I'll never use and items that I think need replaced more often as tubing, filters and pillows are short IMO. After several calls to the offshore customer service to straighten out my orders I just give up. I buy my extra supplies I need off of ebay for cheap.

I dunno what medical suppliers charge insurance for the useless supplies but I still think it's a racket. 

I get those statements .  I don't really care what they are charged.   My co-pay is what I am charged.

Appleseed, why do you risk buying insulin through Craigslist?