Most hospitals send a summary bill (for example pharmacy: $5,000) hoping you’ll panic and just pay it. These are usually full of errors or huge markups. Before you pay anything, call the billing department and ask for an itemized bill with CPT codes. This will not only force a human to review it, but it also gives you the ability to spot BS. I tried this last year and the bill dropped by about 30% literally just because I asked, so don’t let them rip you off.
We live in Denmark. My wife lost her job at a senior home due to stress. 3 years later, breast cancer diagnosis followed by a quick operation. Shes waiting for the radiation sessions now. In the US, we would probably have gone bankrupt. Sorry for you guys.
YSK you don’t get a medical bill in a civilised country.
Before I moved all I had to pay for was the parking if I parked at a hospital. Now I don’t even have to do that.
So glad I got universal heath care
So what if my elective mri took 7 months? Atleast I don’t have medical debt!!!
American here.
I pay dearly for my health care and I still had to wait 6 months for an appointment with a specialist only to find out immediately after sitting down with him that I had been sent to the wrong place AND charged extra for it.
Don’t forget forget 1 grand gets you about 10 minutes of rush time to speak
Tylenol, 2 pills: $250
You guys pay your medical bills?
Last time, I was told to go to a specialist. Called, was told the soonest appointment was 6 MONTHS OUT. Waited 6 months in pain. Went. Was there for 5 minutes when the specialist looked at my record and said I wasn’t supposed to have been sent to him, and sent me packing. Charged me $420 for that “appointment”. Never paid it. Don’t know if they ever garnished my wages or not. Never heard about it.
I’m not going to help them fuck me.
It still boggles my mind that Americans believe this is normal.
We’re a heavily propagandized nation.
A lot of people know our healthcare is fucked, but many have accepted it because they think the alternative is worse. Because they’ve been told so by healthcare lobbyists.
we don’t. we know it’s insanity.
i personally have been trying to change it for 25 years. i’m tired.
I don’t know if it’s changed, but hospitals use to hang up on you if you ask for a quote on an operation. They don’t want to shopping around.
Here it is normal. Most of us do recognize that it shouldn’t be though.
You can also negotiate directly with your medical provider. Ask if they have Financial Assistance programs you can apply for. Nonprofit hospitals in the US are required by law to have these programs and provide you with information when requested, and it frequently results in having your medical debt reduced or forgiven.
nonprofit hospitals
Jesus Christ…
Yet, Boston’s biggest hospital is currently building two new high rises for $2+ Billion…Billion!
My friend recently got their routine blood draw that they get yearly. This time it was over $2000. Usually less than $50. They’ve called the billing department several times and been hung up on each time when asking for an itemized bill. The system is working as intended and needs to be dismantled
And here we complain that a GP appointment with full blood panel and whatever is needed is closing €30.
You guys need to start voting towards civilisation instead of against it.
Was it testing for something specific or was it just the standard panel you get with a physical? I only ask as that would be absurd unless it was specialized (like screening for a specific type of cancer), even for the US.
If it was just a regular blood panel, that is shady as hell and needs to be questioned.
To give reference, I just had my yearly and the three that they did would’ve been ~$200 without insurance; in the SF bay area, at that.
I just had my standard blood draw and it was 550$ so yea 2k defo look into that.
Maybe this was true in 1967 when the typing pool and the accountants had to coordinate to whip up a bill by hand, but the number that the computer spits out is literally a spreadsheet sum of all the line items.
“Itemized bill with CPT” (if it’s a hospital bill they mostly use HCPCS with Rev codes anyway, so ask for “with procedure codes”) is exactly what they send in on insurance claims, so they already have it. It’s not any extra work, no one reviews it and compares it to medical records; it’s literally generated and pulled directly from the medical records.
Unless you are at a small rural hospital that still uses dot matrix printers with the ribbon paper, it’s highly unlikely this will change anything for you. It costs them the extra paper.
It’s still true in that the bill can go back and forth between the hospital and insurance and change.
I had a surgery about 5 years ago that started at about $45k, and every couple of days got the bill would change as things started getting picked up by insurance. Eventually it got down to just over $4k. I waited about a month and then still had to call insurance because my annual out of pocket was capped at $2k and they didn’t take that into account. Eventually it ended right around $1500.
This was all through the MyChart app, so it more it less does live updating after the initial bill is sent, opposed to a paper bill. Now I always wait about a month to pay any medical bills just to be sure, because if you over pay, you have to fight to get it back from insurance.
the number that the computer spits out is literally a spreadsheet sum of all the line items.
Yes a spreadsheet sum of potentially incorrect items, which the only way you’d know about is if you see the items, not the summary. Hence OPs post.
Yes a spreadsheet sum of potentially incorrect items, which the only way you’d know about is if you see the items, not the summary. Hence OPs post.
Not saying that it’s impossible… But, the way most of these codes are input is when a provider scans in a medication or procedure before they administer it.
Electronic medical records systems like Epic basically streamline physician notes with medical billing. It’s actually a lot easier nowadays to accidentally forget to input a billing code than it is to add extra billing information.
Tbh if you get a large and unexpected bill from the hospital, a more effective route is to ask if they have a hardship, charity care, or financial assistance program.
Hospitals, especially state funded ones like the one I practice at are so used to people not being able to pay their bills that we regularly have to write off a ton of medical care. They are usually more than happy to drastically discount care for people who are willing to pay for even part of their bill.
Amerikkka moment…
YSK This is only relevant for the USA.
If you receive a high medical bill, you should follow Luigi’s example.
Completely opposite to the finnish experience.
When I broke my ulna and dislocated my wrist, I took an ambulance ride to the hospital, got three xrays, a cast, and two doses of fentanyl.
Told to return the next morning for post-cast xrays of the damage, by the end of that I was scheduled for surgery 8 days later. Sent home with a prescription for some non-opioid painkillers. Picked those up for around 20 euros.
Received four hours of hand surgery. Over a dozen titanium screws and a titanium plate put in. Given three pills of an opioid based painkiller for sleeping through the worst of the post-surgery pain. And another prescription for more non-opioids.
Weeks later, removal of the surgery bandages, stiyches. Xrays of how the bone was healing, followed by a consultation with a hand surgeon, and then a physical therapist on recovering motion in the wrist and fingers.
Months later one more round of xrays, and two more consultations with the physical therapist, and some follow-up with a hand surgeon due to the therapist noticing a lack of motion in my thumb, resulting in the discovery of some nerve-damage from the surgery (which I thankfully ended up recovering from).
By the end, I was sure I would max out the healthcare billing limit. This was the most expensive recovery from an injury I’d ever suffered. Finnish public health care is only allowed to bill you up to a maximum yearly amount, so as to never overload any one individual with debt. But it would still be a lot for me.
When I finally got an un-itemized bill, I was sure it was only the first of many.
Nope. It was the total. 87 euros and 40 cents.
That shit would bankrupt you here in the US.
Here in Canada, I recently took a big stumble while snowboarding, and my ankle hurt a lot. I went to the emergency room at the nearest hospital, got X-rays, and they confirmed I had broken my left inner malleolus. They referred me to the specialist clinic, and sent me home with a boot and crutches.
Next Monday, the specialist clinic tell me to show up the next morning (so on Tuesday). I waited pretty much the whole morning for the specialist to see me, he confirmed he needed to operate and put 2 screws in my ankle. The surgery happened later that evening.
Got a follow up 2 weeks later to remove the cast / surgery bandages, more X-rays and they put me back in the boot until the next follow-up a month later, after which I’ll probably start physiotherapy.
All of this cost me about 4$ in EV charging while I was at the ER, and maybe 20$ in medication (painkillers and Tylenol)? And I don’t think it could’ve been any faster. People love to shit on our healthcare system here, but in my experience it’s been amazing.
People love to shit on our healthcare system here, but in my experience it’s been amazing.
Same.
But in terms of quality of care, I have no complaints. The opposite. The nurses and doctors I interacted with were wonderful, and I made a point of telling them that. My surgeon in particular fought like hell for a result that would fully restore function in my hand. I was conscious for the surgery, so I got to sit in on the whole process.
Ulnar plate - and a dozen screws - from a fight, so somewhat like yours without the wrist damage.
X-rays and a cast, but since I brought no ID with me they needed me to call back with my health numbers for charting. Walked out without paying.
Back after a few weeks, and it’s not healing well. And that’s when they booked the surgery. They’d removed the cast for the x-rays so they sent me home with a sampler of T3 or so to get me through Christmas. Plate implanted on 28dec but in the hospital for a while because of really bad rejection and infection (almost lost it). Finally until control, I was sent homenwith a prescription for painkillers.
$0 aside from those meds (c$20). 🇨🇦
Australia is some weird kind of limbo in between.
An electrophysiology study, cardiac ablation and a couple of carioversions cost $0 as a public patient but I could have gone private (I pay for private insurance) and it would have cost something.We do have that, too. (Private insurance and healthcare, I mean)
But most services even as a public patient do cost something here. Small stuff is usually a pittance, and if you say you can’t pay, they’ll either waive it or put you on an extremely generous payment plan. I know stuff like asking for painkillers in a waiting room is free though. Just the work of keeping track of that type of thing to charge for it, isn’t worth it.
But the more expensive stuff can add up. That’s why the maximum exists, but apparently even the extremely complex repair of my wrist, barely dents it.
What’s the max yearly amount?
Here in Norway it’s ~340$. I usually blow through that in 1.5 months, so most of the year it’s “free”.
I think I’m half way through that already, but it doesn’t show up immediately on Helfo so I don’t know for sure.
Just under 800 euro iirc.
Yeah this doesn’t really work anymore. In the past 2 years I’ve seen the hospital bills from 2 different hospitals.
Both hospitals issued an itemized bill automatically. We didn’t have to ask for anything. My guess is hospitals know this “trick” now and just have better accounting. So they issue the itemized right away so.they don’t have to deal with anyone calling
Funny really. I’ve never recieved an itemised bill from a hospital visit.
#usacentricpost
Funny for me too. I’ve never received a bill from a hospital visit.
I have, or well from other doctors at least. Our universal healthcare doesn’t pay things they don’t consider important. Paying everything would undermine their bargaining power.
But those bills are always itemized.
Thanks for that, interesting to hear. It boggles my mind why anyone would pay ANY bill that isn’t itemised.
