UnitedHealthcare CEO shot and killed in NYC

You're right about that. I have decent, not great, but decent, insurance that has covered most medical expenses I've ever had so far. But I've recently been seeing a pulmonary specialist and a heart specialist to try to track and treat some breathing issues I've had. Co-pays are $75 a pop.

 

terrorism?

 

They should freak out after reading the grammar abortion “$23.5-million salaried” …

 

Since this has become a thread about grievances with the health care industrial complex - or at least there's already a significant threadjack to that effect going on - I'm curious if anyone else has dealt with something similar.

Given where I live, I get most of my healthcare needs taken care of at Duke. I may sh*t on their basketball team, but the quality of care is very high.

Duke does something in its billing that infuriates me (and pretty much everyone else I know in the area who has dealt with it.) Like a lot of major health systems elsewhere, Duke has bought up most of the small practices in the area; they've bought two smaller hospitals; and a handful of other outpatient facilities. I used to try to stick to independent providers, but now that they've bought nearly everything it's impossible.

Anyway, here's what Duke does: Depending on where you see your provider, they tack on a "hospital services fee" that ranges from $800 to $1,500. It's just an extra fee straight on top of everything else. If you see your provider at a satellite clinic, there's no fee. If you see your provider at a "hospital-based clinic" there's a fee. Most providers see people in multiple locations, so if you know to ask during scheduling then you can often avoid the fee. But sometimes you can't and sometimes it just seems to be randomly applied.

The kicker: Almost all insurance companies refuse to cover it (understandably). Over the last 20 years I've had four or five instances of going in for what should be a routine test with a copay of $0-80 and I end up owing Duke $800 to $1,500. And sometimes it's totally random. Like last year when my kid broke his arm. He saw the same provider three times at the same facility over about six weeks and each time there was an exam, x-ray and either re-casting or removal of his cast. The second of the three got a $1,200 hospital services fee while the other two didn't.

 

And to think I was upset when I just noticed the $4.50 "shop services fee" yesterday that Take 5 charges for oil changes.

 

TLDR, they can get away with it in most states, including yours, thanks to the paperwork you sign when you become a patient (or the new paperwork you sign when a practice changes hands.

Practically speaking, it looks like the best thing you can do is lean on your state representative.

https://www.northcarolinahealthnews.org/2024/09/23/hospital-facility-fees-but-no-hospital/

So once again we have an industry profiting on the idea that they can abuse the customer relationship and people have no choice but to take it and pay up. And they will just have to accept their fate.

Right up until they don’t.

 

Oh, I know they can do it. So infuriating. Also, my reps are too closely tied to Duke to ever touch the issue. One of 'em literally works for Duke since we still have part-time legislators.

I partly wanted to vent and partly wondered how widespread the practice is outside of NC. Sitting in a waiting room at a hospital-based clinic now, waiting for a routine test and wondering how crazy my bill is going to be.

 

Do what I do: just refuse to pay it.

 

The risk, very real, is you refuse and they drop your medical coverage.

 

I am awaiting insurance approval for a procedure on my nose. I have really restricted sinuses to the point of sometimes even brushing my teeth, I can get choked and start projectile puking because of it. It's awful. Heaven forbid I'm eating, develop running sinuses and get clogged.
Anyway, docs want to do a thing where they go in an auger out and cauterize my sinuses to open me up. I'm not getting put under. I'm not getting cut. I'm just going to sit on the exam table in the doctor's office, get numbed, and they'll root around in my nose with a stick.
The wait for approval is it's being billed to my insurance for $10K.
Uhhhhhh, whut?

If insurance denies me, I can buy a crap ton of nasal spay for a lot less than $10K.

 

There's a reason that there are so few new physicians going into family practice. There's a lot more money to be made as a specialist, and if you're an ENT or a plastic surgeon you don't get calls in the middle of the night.