Layed there for 5 weeks while family members rushed to his bedside.
anyways, my wife has to get a procedure done. the doc had to give her a $300 shot???? to get things under control, stabilize so he could surgerize. but unless she agreed to have him do the procedure he wouldn’t treat her initially. he told her the other doc she had seen had given her the wrong medication, and he assured her he had talked the the hospital and said they would do a payment plan for use of the facility after his full fee was paid up front of course. but we all know that is a lie cause that hospital doesn’t do payment plans. well, they do in a way, they immediately send your bill to a collections agency. but hey she is ok for now, and she had only lost 25% of her blood before the shot.
so the plan is to shoot the doctors before the lawyers so the docs can’t be around to fix the lawyers...I love the smell of CWII in the morning...
Obamacares not a goddamned bit just like all the rest of congress and the scotus.
Was this experience in the US?
My experience is different. We also live in area that is rated as having the highest medical fees anywhere in the country. It is commonplace for insurance companies to deny full payment to them on the grounds of excessive charges. While they can then go after the patient for the remainder, I think patients have recourse if it can be proven that the fees are excessive or the regulators can force the insurance company to pay more, if not the total. Normally, for non-elective procedures, the patient’s own physician will be involved in dealing with the insurance company and providing evidence of necessity for the procedures, as well as their costs.
The hospital was very obliging when I called and told them the payment schedule I could afford. No problems. I do not think it is legal for any medical facility to immediately go to collection when the patient is making good faith payments. However, for those who refuse to pay _anything_ before demanding a payment plan, the response may differ.
The MD’s fees were separate on the bill, listed under *clinic*. However, after the insurance paid, _both_ the remaining hospital fees and the remaining surgeon’s fees (including follow up and anesthesia)were combined into the total, so one monthly payment was, I suppose, divided between them. The physicians and their clinical practice are employees of the hospital. We were simply paying the contracted deductible.
I have never had a hospital refuse a payment schedule. Not one MD that I know even knows how their services are charged out, since they all receive a salary from their institution. All the former private practices in my area, save one, are now under the umbrella of a large hospital that purchased our local hospital and the practices some time ago. The various clinics retain their original names, but they are no longer privately held.
The one remaining private MD practice is a woman who does not get along with any of her peers and may not even have hospital privileges. This is because she will demand others cover her practice, will not reciprocate and is the only local physician to refuse a shift in the ER. Her practice is limited to women, revolves around laser diagnosis for osteoporosis and she is very hard-nosed about her fees. She is known to not pay her employees. Not all of her procedures are covered by insurance. She also no longer has enough patients to work a full 40-hour week and, AFAIK, is forced to do her own billing and cleaning.
Had I encountered the MD you describe, I would have run like hell the other way, found another doctor who practiced at a different hospital and probably filed as many complaints as possible with as many regulators as I could find.
Physicians are there when needed. Who would you turn to if they were not? Hospitals provide infrastructure, ERs, lab and pharmacy services. They even make their laundry facilities available for associated health professionals, for a fee. The ones I know have no real love for the plaintiff’s bar, either, but they are bound by oath to treat everyone in need. This includes not only MDs,but APRNs and vets, as well. In my small town, the local veterinarians can and do use the hospital labs for blood tests and can get some meds that they don’t normally stock from the hospital pharmacy.
Sorry for the length of this. I hate zer0care, too, but your rant just differed so much from my own experiences that I had to say something.