Posted on 03/22/2013 12:52:54 PM PDT by My Favorite Headache
Deep breath.
I am going to write this in the calmest way possible. I am not here to air out dirty laundry but just like my last post back in Jan about Obamacare and law enforcement officials and doctors...this one leaps another level.
I went to a doctor this morning for a follow up to an appointment I went to at the end of January. During my last appointment other than just getting some prescriptions refilled we went over some MRI results and talked about a different course of action regarding an injury.
This morning I show up for a follow up to see how the new scripts are going and what not...I get to the front desk and the doctor's assistant says to me "You have an outstanding balance of $75.00", I said no that is impossible...I pay everything up front for my appointments. I pay cash up front for any visit.
Then she lays it on me.
"Your doctor went 13 minutes over time last visit and you owe $75.00 for it."
I said like hell I do...I paid for a full visit last time like I do every time and why should I suddenly pay more?
Quote "As of January..and the change to the medical laws and rules and the "Affordable Health Care Act", we have to by law charge after 15 minutes for a separate appointment because the first 15 minutes are considered "Prescription Recheck". If anything goes over the 15 minutes it becomes "Therapeutic Visit". If the doctor does not account for his time with you he will be fined $600.00 and he must account for every single thing that goes on behind that door."
She then puts a 2013 medical code book and shows me that there were hundreds of pages of code they were still learning and that they were told to expect a new bigger book in December.
I was furious at the fact that there was no notice of this anywhere and why in the hell am I just being told this now and not when I left the office the last time?
The assistant said "The notices are on the door over there".......................the door to a closet that nobody reads really because it had about 17 pieces of different things written in various sized print. By law all the office has to do is post it but not tell the patients about it.
They have stopped accepting new patients..FOREVER. They have had to close another office they had 65 miles away because since the Newton shootings...there are landlords that do not want to have anything from neurologists to psychologists to psychiatrists (anything brain related) in their building in case "one of them snaps".
I was told to expect it to become much, much, much worse and that people are just not showing up for appointments any longer.
Not that it matters but this was for a neurologist who sees me for a fall from a 2 story house.
My employer doesn't offer health insurance...they can't afford to. So I am compensated more to make up for what they can as far as me handling my own medical care.
A $75.00 extra fee. If he didn't report it he would be brought up for medical fraud and the $600.00 fine would put him on a probation.
I hate typing about my own personal life like this but you know what...this is the kind of thing that needs to be known. My doctor said his hands are tied. He tries every route he can to avoid billing cash patients more and tries to do a discount but has been warned if he does that then he will be charged with fraud as well. That is why he stopped seeing new patients so he won't be shopped.
He said psychiatrists and psychologists are going through some serious problems right now and they are completely turning all cash only. No insurance at all.
My venting is over.
Well .. just to add to the headaches, my sister just called to tell me that when you reach 76, you are no longer eigible for CANCER TREATMENT.
Is this where you get the little pill and you’re told to go home and die ..??
You know why they want to get rid of the elderly don’t you ..?? Because they remember what the founding fathers taught about the Constitution .. they want the low information voters to ignore all that “old” stuff.
The Death Panels are the fix for SocSec and Medicare funding.
Each year cut off the life expectancy is huge in the projections.
Don’t expect to hear ANY politician mention that.
Sad to hear this is what it comes down to. Boils my blood.
sooner = better
/.02
The problem is that people are blaming insurance companies...not Obama, not Democrats. See other threads.
Do you have health insurance coverage? If so, what is your provider?
Have your heard of this? Resperate [sic] -- not an endorsement, all I know is what's here, just ran into it browsing!
Have no idea..what we all shall expect.
About my sentiments..........
Third world medical tourism.
Overnight we’ve gone from a country where people from all over the world came for first-rate medical treatment to one whose citizens will need a passport to evade the death panels.
And we deserve it so long as lamp posts remain - unadorned.
You don’t really need the gimmick black box to do that, although it probably will help some people manage their breathing rhythm. My brother can “manually” control his breathing to noticeably lower his BP on a subsequent test — not sure how long the effect lasts. I don’t seem to have the self control. But since my bp meds are $4 at Walmart I have no big incentive to invest in a method like that (my guess is many people use the device for a few days and then give it up).
No. I pay cash or credit card. My employer doesn’t carry or offer any longer.
Thank you for sharing your experience. And for pointing out that physicians who don’t do as the govt specifies will be punished.
My understanding is Drs have to follow the same rules for people who pay cash as they do for Insurance companies (a sop to the Insurance companies in the law). No more price breaks. This is intended to sweep in people who are self-insured. Otherwise, Insurance companies would lose a lot of customers as people (who can afford to) move away from them to get away from the ridiculous rules.
Mayor Bloomberg would be proud of this coercive state of affairs. It’s rigid by design.
Send this letter to your Governor, your state reps, your Senator, and your House Rep.
This will become an election year issue if enough of this leaks out.
Believe me. The D’s aren’t going to go to bat to defend this sort of thing if it means giving up their cushy jobs to do so. Bank on that.
They can all, at this point, feign surprise and get behind you at this point, since they voted on something they hadn’t seen either. As long as people DON’T smear their local politicians noses into this steaming coil, they’ll continue to be able to use the lie of ‘I didn’t know!’.
Now you do, and we’ll take it out on you if you don’t take it out on Obama and your legislative leadership.
100% correct.
“I am tired of playing this game.”
You might be tired, but when the IRS finds out you don’t have insurance, you’ll quickly realize you’re still in their “game”.
Good luck, I think cash payments may become illegal.
There is a huge effort in the medical industry now to extract as much cash from the customers as possible.
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