Posted on 01/30/2025 3:22:56 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Go to any doctor’s office or hospital. The staffing level is about 2X what you might expect. In the early 70s, our primary care doctor’s office was staffed by a receptionist and himself. Technology has (seemingly) not made them more productive.
Medical costs are absurd. I recently went to our local ER because a small hearing device got jammed deep in my ear canal. The doctor was able to remove the device easily with some special tweezers. My visit lasted 15 minutes. My insurance co-pay was $200, but the ER bill totaled $1430.
My husband went to the doctor the other day. Nothing had changed. He was married to the same person, lived at the same address, had the same insurances and was there about something that was a reoccurring problem for which they had treated him in the past. Not a thing had changed. But he still had to spend ten minutes filling out electronic forms to say that nothing had changed.
I remember a time when you went to the doctor and the nice lady at the front desk asked if anything had changed, you said no and that was it. She did not have to do any paperwork, you did not have to do any paperwork, it was all the same. Now they need two people at the front desk and at least two in the back to handle the paperwork for one nurse and one doctor.
We are drowning in administrators.
And those people cost money.
ERs should stabilize and return to country of origin...
Start making a list of WFA Waste Fraud Abuse
1) SS paying Capitation for dead not yet dead in the database.
2) State Medicaid paying Capitation for dead not yet dead in data base.
3) SS paying twice for the Same person who is in the data base as both Bill and William.
4) State Medicaid paying twice… for both Mary and Maria.
5) paying for druggie’s drugs.
6)
7)…
As the Senator said “What’s a few billion here and there?”
Suppose $500/mo per person. About 100 person person per month per congressional district district. 535@100@$500@12 months 🤔 per year for each type of waste. ( Many are mor than $500/mo.
You paid for those who pay nothing.
By the way, even with a fairly serious cut (tendons showing) I got to wait 4 hrs in the ER before getting 13 staples.
Staff was busy with gunshots. Gang bangers don’t pay. The staples cost me about $300 ea.
In the 1960s, my mom took me to a group practice with about five doctors and two office workers.
The EMTALA might be changed so customers have to hand over upfront $200, a popular model of PC still selling at more the $300 new as listed by the Secretary of HHS, a popular model of cellphone still selling at least $250 new as listed by the Secretary of HHS, or a valid passport with at least a year on it, a valid driver’s license or valid state ID.
If the hospital has a pawn shop and it is open, then only $200 upfront need be accepted.
And if didn’t have Insurance I bet the bill would have only been $300. My blood Clot without Insurance cost me $2500 for EVERYTHING at the Hospital. The Insurance Price was $13,000 which I would have had to pay $7,000 deductible then 30% copay costing a total of $8800 WITH INSURANCE!!! They list Both Prices on their bills.
Cut healthcare administrators by 85%, separate hospital costs from caregiver costs, institute sweeping reforms markedly limiting spurious lawsuits, allow physician run / caregiver run facilities to compete against hospitals - for starters.
I have long recommended Medicare multiple pricing.
The provider would post his multiple on the door and that’s it.
He might also be allowed to post exceptions.
If Medicare would pay $200 and his multiple is 2, you would be billed $400. If your insurance covered 80% up to a multiple of 1.4, your insurance would pay 80% of $280 ($224) and you’d pay $176.
Hospitals could be converted to REITs. They would rent out space.
If the providers together can provide hospital level care to state standards, the place might be called a hospital.
These standards might require staggered morning and evening rush hour surgery start times (so a car crash victim can be operated on), 24-hour staffing of at least one operating room, a pathology lab, 24/7/365 imaging hours, 24/7/365 apothecary & blood banking, 24/7/365 blood analysis, at least one nursing wing, acceptance of state pricing guidelines (and appropriate state operating subsidies), etc.
State garnishment limitations might be set aside by federal law so EMTALA care can get paid for.
EMTALA care might get paid from Social Security accounts.
If your EMTALA care cost $4,000 and got paid from your Social Security account, the first $4,000 you might otherwise get from Social Security would already have been paid out to the hospital and its doctors.
If you are drawing from Social Security, the EMTALA amounts might get debited from your monthly Social Security over a 10-year period.
EMTALA care might be collected on in the same way as child support and student loans, but at a higher priority.
The only way that can be done so that is not undone by creep or decree is to disband all Federal Healthcare agencies and remove the Federal Government from any connection to the medical field, including the Pharma companies. If the Civil Service employees cannot be fired then they should be shipped off to newly built offices in Northern Montana or on federal land in Nevada, offices that have no function; better to pay total drones than pay them while they destroy the medical system in the nation.
Not quite three years ago, I was talking to the wife of the surgeon who was going to do my reversal surgery and she told me and my wife that when both of them went to the medical school graduation (alumni), the hospital administrator grads well before the medical school grads.
Apparently this was a new thing and they were irked. Don’t blame them.
I don’t know much about medical schools.
Which, on the face of it, suggests that if gangbangers had to pay ER costs upfront, crime rates would fall. If illegals had to front medical costs, fewer would sneak across the border, etc., etc.
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