My son spent a few days in the hospital two years ago and had long term regular care afterward. The bills were insane. There were thousands of dollars in “accidents” They even tried to bill me for an appointment I supposedly had with a pediatric gastroenterologist. (I met the guy in an elevator with my son’s actual doctor.)
The bills started to clear up when I threatened to start billing them $200 an hour for forensic accounting services.
My wife holds an accounting degree. I can’t imagine how people who don’t can navigate the billing morass.
“The bills started to clear up when I threatened to start billing them $200 an hour for forensic accounting services.”
Years ago, I had a co-worker who had a young son who was dying of cancer. He finally called in his doctor, and told him in no uncertain terms, that without his personal written authorization, NO ONE was to see his son for any reason. It was enough, he said, that his child was going to die, but adding the financial insult of having a mountain of medical bills left in the wake of his passing wasn’t going to happen.
The whole medical care “industry,” doctors, hospitals, drug and insurance companies and medical device mfrs., is worse by far than the Military/Industrial Complex.
Two years ago the wife of a dear couple ( they are 10 years our senior) we had come to know quite by accident courtesy of our dog ( bless her heart), had a heart problem (she was 85 at the time, but you would never know it to look at her). Out of her “team of doctors,” only one thought she deserved to have the heart surgery that she needed in order to continue to live. The rest said put her in hospice care and let her die! Her husband ( who is three years her senior pressed them to do the surgery). We had dinner with the two of them last evening, she is in amazingly good health, thanks to the surgery that put in a new Aortic Heart Valve! Today, good health is your only guarantee of continuing to live, because the “medical profession” looses interest in treating you as you age!