Posted on 06/11/2024 6:25:38 PM PDT by davikkm
Some hospitals and surgery centers are now requiring patients to pay upfront for surgeries. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, this practice has become more common, with facilities refusing to perform surgery until they receive full payment. While this approach may allow patients to know the cost ahead of time and potentially shop around, it can be challenging for those who cannot afford unexpected medical bills. Approximately half of adults would be unable to pay a $500 medical bill in full without going into debt. As a result, many individuals must borrow the necessary funds to cover these upfront costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at citizenwatchreport.com ...
Bingo!
Regards,
Prepay is not required for emergency surgeries, only for elective ones. And you should shop around for a planned surgery or outpatient surgery.
I told them to pound sand and that I would cancel the procedure if they insisted. They backed off.
I then got a bill for some additional item when I had had exactly the same thing done a year ago without this additional service being added.
Medical billing is basically outright fraud and theft.
That’s how other countries do it.
Yea, now show me how an HSA works for an employee at the 15, 16, 17 dollar an hour range. They’re required to get insurance in order to not be penalized. They have rent, food, gas to get to work etc. no way they’ll ever be able to save up to 2mil.
Our government has become so bloated that just the taxes we pay break someone. It’s by design. Now healthcare prepayment? I suggest the people go break some law, get incarcerated and have the government pay.
bttt
this appeals to me!! the last time I had to screw a hospital on a service payment was when they told me after the fact that an X-ray and a hole flush and liquid glue to plug a hole in my foot from a stringray barb was $8700 plus another 3K for admin fees... $11,700... i told them to go fk themselves...
It works the same for those earning little money. It may take longer to save, but the principle works the same. High immigration is the main reason that low income jobs aren’t rising in pay.
There is also personal responsibility. Nobody is going to give you a job that pays well. You have to be willing to get the training and seek it. 16 hour days are a norm for poor people, trying to get ahead. That’s life. Most poor people got somewhere worked full-time and they treated their training as another full-time job.
If we want people to get ahead, we need to open up the ways that people can get qualified to get ahead.
You are thinking of an FSA.
Yeah. Somebody mentioned HSA and I had that on my mind. Thanks!
Negotiation for some hospital services has been around for a very long time. Back in the 80s our first baby cost us and the insurance company something close to $4,000 out the door. However the next two babies were delivered under a negotiated agreement for about $1,000 each - no insurance company involved. That money was prepaid directly to the hospital - no additional money changed hands.
Great idea.
You and others are confusing an HSA with an FSA.
FSA's are use it or lose it each calendar year. But they are front loaded. So, if you elect an FSA for an annual amount of say $2,600, all of that $2,600 is available to spend on day 1 of the plan year, even if you are only contributing $100 on a pre-tax basis each bi-weekly pay. And if you spend it all and terminate the job mid-year, the employer is out the money they funded up front but haven’t deducted from you and they cannot collect the difference. But employers cannot contribute to your FSA.
However, if you don’t spend the elected amount, you lose it except, if your company elects, either a carryover up to $570 per year to use on medical expenses in the following year or “grace period” of up to 2.5 extra months after the end of the year to use your FSA funds.
HSA's carry over from year to year but the funds available are only up to what you have contributed on a pre-tax basis from your pay to date (and your employer’s match, either front loaded or on a per pay basis, if they choose to contribute). But unlike an FSA, to qualify for an HSA you must be enrolled in a high deductible plan.
HSA’s are portable and much like a 401k you can transfer the balance of your HSA with your former employer to the HSA of your new employer, if enrolled in a qualifying high deductible plan. If your new employer doesn’t off a high deductible plan with an HSA you can still open your own HSA account for the balance and can use the funds for qualified medical expenses in retirement.
And some HSA plans allow you to invest the balance over a certain amount in stocks or other interest baring instruments.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/difference-between-fsa-and-hsa/
https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/smart-money/hsa-vs-fsa
See my post 53 for a more detailed explanation of the differences between an HSA and an FSA.
In my neck of the woods, the last time I checked, the hospitals want to know how much your make annually before they’ll discuss a cash price.
In other words the price of the service depends on your income.
And if you go that route, you get what you pay for.
It’s best if they profit if the patient survives.
Pay for it upfront and their motivation to have a successful operation could be diminished.
If you factor in how much the hospital gets by harvesting the patients organs and there may be a situation where they could be motivated to have the patient pass on the table.
It’s also great if the employer also contributes to the HSA up to the IRS limits. But that is not required and not all employers do.
At a former employer some years ago, they eliminated their traditional PPO health plan and only offered a high deductible plan with an HSA along with an employer contribution at 50% of the IRS limit and funded on a per pay basis.
In the first week of January of that first year, a co-worker went on a ski trip with his family and took a bad fall, broke his leg in several places requiring surgery and PT. But he was enrolled in the HSA family plan so his deductible at the time was, IIRC, $6,000 per person.
But his first pay for that year hadn’t been processed yet so there was zero in his HSA account, so he had to pay the full deductible up front.
He was able to put in claims for reimbursement as his HSA balance accumulated but that was a lot of money he had to pay up front.
My current employer offers a PPO and a high deductible plan with an HSA but doesn’t contribute to the HSA nor do they offer an FSA.
As I’m a few years from retirement, even though the per pay contribution to the PPO is higher than the high deductible plan since the employer does not contribute to the HSA, it made more sense to me to enroll in the PPO with the much lower deductible and out of pocket costs.
But I really wished they offered and FSA but as a manufacturing co, we have a high rate of turn over, so that is why they don't offer an FSA even to us office workers.
I agree with your sentiment. I have scraped and suffered previously on multiple occasions and now run a local small business where I make a decent living. For me though it was blood, sweat and tears getting to where I am today, and I am far from rich.
The overhaul in the health care system should have only been to rein in prices of both medical and prescription costs. Obamacare only opened up “required” opportunities for the low income folks to get gouged with mandatory premiums that were higher than what they had before. Anything the government touches ends up being used as a reason to tax us more and more. The government solutions only help the government not the people. The evil in DC feeds itself on our backs.
I experienced this 7 years ago when I broke my right wrist off my arm, requiring 2 plates and 12 screws to reattach it. Insurance covered all but 14k, which I had to pay upfront at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL. Thankfully I had the money, majority wouldn’t be as fortunate.
You know your HSA can be invested, and not just in BS CD’s or money market funds, right?
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