Updated billing on cost additional costs

[alibaba]

Received this today for the implant @ Vanderbilt on 01/13/16

Summary of Charges:
7 INSRT INFLATBL PENILE PROS* 01/13/16 MILAM, DOUGLAS F $2,711.00
. Amount Due $0.00
.
6 A00938-INSER/MULT/COMP/INF* 01/13/16 BANERJEE, ARNA $1,968.00
. Amount Due $0.00
.
1 HIGH COMPLEXITY 01/13/16 MILAM, DOUGLAS F $484.00
Description Amount
DRUG/DETAIL CODE $951.98
IV SOLUTIONS $40.00
PHARMACY $216.10
DRUGS/INCIDENT ODX $184.61
DRUG/SELF ADMIN $4.12
ANESTHESIA $5,477.00
SUPPLY/IMPLANTS $27,676.10
OR SERVICES $22,579.00
RECOVERY ROOM $7,440.00
TOTALS $69,731.91
Insurance reduction $80.00 $69,651.91

[activesurveillance]

Alibaba, the $70K bill is absolutely preposterous even based on my NY/NJ area known for shady medical billing practices. Your anesthetist billed for more than the total for the two surgeons. I'm in the hospital annually for a colonoscopy due to recurring polyps and always make it loud & clear in advance that there will be no sedation. Yet the morning of the procedure they always show up looking to cop a fee. When I politely remind them their services will not be needed they eventually leave with forlorn expressions like I was taking food out of their mouths.

But as you must know, you can push back on the $70K, e.g., CMS would not approve of even 10%. Next time leave the Bentley GT home and rent a dented Enterprise car. Same with the 3piece suit & diamond pinky ring, 3piece sets demand workmen's gear.

[DonBecker54]

I had inner ear surgery ten years ago, and the fee for the surgeon for a one-hour surgery was $12,000. I don't remember if that's what the insurance company paid or not.

Last year I was going to Atlanta to see Dr. Steven Morganstern (quack) for treatment of Peyronies. I only saw him once, at my third or fourth treatment. He walked into the room, introduced himself, and shook my hand. When I was checking out, he walked by and slapped me on the back. They charged me an $80 co-pay for a office visit for that.

[alibaba]

I saw a urologist in St. Louis once that charged $1455 for an office visit. Never more than 15 minutes. Milam was $485 for 12 minutes. Oddly enough the very best doctors my wife or I ever had charged the least. Wife had a 2 hour surgery to remove a large ovarian tumor in November at a Catholic owned hospital. The entire bill, hospital, anesthesiologist, meds, surgeon, everything was only a few dollars over $3600. Love the doc. She has asked him to be her regular. Great experience. Anesthesiologists are the highest paid doctors in the United States on average. Check the statistics. I expected at least $15,000 bare minimum compared to my bills at major medical school hospitals. Medical costs are out of control. So are med costs.

[PC Newbie]

The medical billing is crazy. And they bill so much more than they ever expect to get. I'm wondering if they every had insurance that could be purchased anywhere, than just a given state, if the competition would help.

I went through radiation late last summer. The radiation was billed at around $3k per, and I think Medicare/Insurance paid less than $1K per.

Sigh...

[alibaba]

What I really hate is so many providers now make you sign a contract that you will pay whatever difference they charge between billing and insurance payment and that can be a large amount. MANY of the 450 docs here in town make you prepay visits or leave a CC at the desk to get in the door before you see the doc. Have for several years now. They even take your picture so they can prove in court if they sue that you were there. Just received refund checks from the Oct 8 surgery I had to prepay. Insurance paid the docs in Nov. I've hounded them since to get reimbursed. 2 did now. Walk in clinics are charging $240 to see a NP or $380 to see a D.O or M.D. At least the N.P. will spend a few minutes with you. I know a lot of people cannot afford that. A couple times I almost offered to pay for people who walked out because they could not ante up. It's sad. Costa Rica can get healthcare right, why cannot the United States? I had 10 surgeries in 2009. bills totaled a little over $365,000. That included days in ICU, and thoracic surgery that took most of a day as one of the surgeries. $70k for 2 1/2 hour dick implant by comparison?

[DonBecker54]

My father had quintuple bypass surgery at age 72. He lived to be 92. If he'd been in a country with "free" healthcare, he would have been rejected because of age, and would have died before he turned 73.

The poor can get their care for free. The middle class cannot.

[activesurveillance]

The No. 1 problem is the very large & getting larger pool of people on Medicare & Medicaid. These federal entities pay the hospitals and doctors peanuts often far less than costs. But hospitals & doctors are under tremendous pressure to accept these people or be considered outcasts or even possibly lose their non-profit 501 status in the case of a some hospitals. Consequently, people with private insurance or god-forbid no insurance, often get billed as much as 10X higher to offset purported losses, and it's legal. Making the situation even worse is the 11MM and growing illegals who are guaranteed service just by showing up in the ER.

So the situation will continue to worsen. There's been talk of eliminating Medicare for people having a certain minimum income and force them to buy private insurance, but that has gone nowhere. But the hospital bursar office will often forgive part of the bill for prompt payment.

[Electrician]

I was Implanted on 1/18/16 in arizona and my Insurance was UnitedHealth and they got billed 80900. For 2hrs of work.

[strongagain]

I can't understand the US prices. For the same in Germany you would pay US$ 26,000 - everything included, even being for up to a week in the care of doctors and nurses at the hospital.