I told my wife that there was no way the insurance company would end up paying that whole bill since they usually have deals with the hospitals to reduce costs. I had no idea just how much.
Today we got the final bill. We'll pay exactly $50, the insurance company paid only $1,809, and the hospital wrote off $13,589.
The $1,809 amount makes sense to me for what was done that day. The $15,000 figure never made sense, and perhaps that's what wrong with the whole health care system. There's clearly a lot of air in the numbers the hospitals are charging if they'll write off that much money for someone with insurance. Does that mean that anyone without insurance pays the full bill and covers the cost for the rest of us?
I don't know, but it would be interesting to find out.
Posts
2 comments:
That is exactly what it means -- hospitalsl will go after every last cent of the $13,191. They will get maybe $10,000 -- and then claim an operating loss of $3,191.
Yes, Rick, that is exactly what it means. We have no dental insurance, and I've had many discussions with the dental office as to why they bill us the same as they bill the insurance company. I understand why they do it, but they can give a cash discount. Finally, this year, the dentist started giving us a 15% cash discount. We still pay more than the 'insured' but the amount is fairer.
Post a Comment