Doc vs. Bob

[Stunter Bob]

Thats nuts for some simple stitches.

My dad had a quadruple bypass 4 years ago and it took a good 6 months for the bills to finally start showing up. I had to hide them from him for another 6 months just so he didn't have another heart attack!

Insurance paid 80% - Total bill I believe before insurance paid was like 228k
That is rediculous

[BP]

My brother just got a bill for $350k, and that was after Tricare paid the first round of doctors. 3 different hospitals, two surgeons plus a transplant team add up. That isn't even counting the 20+ follow up visits, his out of pocket expenses for fuel and parking, the weekly home nurse visit and medications. Plus the biopsy he had on Monday.

Yeah health care is expensive!

[mstng86]

Thats nuts for some simple stitches.

My dad had a quadruple bypass 4 years ago and it took a good 6 months for the bills to finally start showing up. I had to hide them from him for another 6 months just so he didn't have another heart attack!

Insurance paid 80% - Total bill I believe before insurance paid was like 228k
That is rediculous

I forgot to mention I paid $58 dollars to have them REMOVED days later.

[Randy]

My brother just got a bill for $350k, and that was after Tricare paid the first round of doctors. 3 different hospitals, two surgeons plus a transplant team add up. That isn't even counting the 20+ follow up visits, his out of pocket expenses for fuel and parking, the weekly home nurse visit and medications. Plus the biopsy he had on Monday.

Yeah health care is expensive!

well... was the home nurse full service??

[mustangguy289]

My brother just got a bill for $350k, and that was after Tricare paid the first round of doctors. 3 different hospitals, two surgeons plus a transplant team add up. That isn't even counting the 20+ follow up visits, his out of pocket expenses for fuel and parking, the weekly home nurse visit and medications. Plus the biopsy he had on Monday.

Yeah health care is expensive!

I would rather die then have that kind of debt placed on me and my family. Ridiculous. How much does it cost to die in a hospital these days?

[347Mike]

Thats nuts for some simple stitches.

My dad had a quadruple bypass 4 years ago and it took a good 6 months for the bills to finally start showing up. I had to hide them from him for another 6 months just so he didn't have another heart attack!

Insurance paid 80% - Total bill I believe before insurance paid was like 228k
That is rediculous

When you think about it, is it really? I mean it is heart surgery, saving a life, live another X amount of years, not putting a bandaid on a scratch....

[Randy]

I would rather die then have that kind of debt placed on me and my family. Ridiculous. How much does it cost to die in a hospital these days?

X2

[davbrucas]

Thats nuts for some simple stitches.

My dad had a quadruple bypass 4 years ago and it took a good 6 months for the bills to finally start showing up. I had to hide them from him for another 6 months just so he didn't have another heart attack!

Insurance paid 80% - Total bill I believe before insurance paid was like 228k
That is rediculous

They saved your father's life. What price should be put on that? $228k seems awfully low...

My profession is one of the only ones where someone else decides what your time is worth.

[The King]

They saved your father's life. What price should be put on that? $228k seems awfully low...

My profession is one of the only ones where someone else decides what your time is worth.

Well put

[Stunter Bob]

O don't get me wrong, to save my dads life and still have him around, theres no price tag you can put on a mans life like that, and its well worth it.
But when you hand an already stressed out man a bill that he can not pay, man you should of see his face, he nearly had another heart attack!

[BP]

I would rather die then have that kind of debt placed on me and my family. Ridiculous. How much does it cost to die in a hospital these days?

Well when he's a retired Air Force fire chief and the illness is very likely job related (pulmonary fibrosis) Tri-care tends to jump. The costs wouldn't have been nearly as bad if he hadn't gone to the VA hospital for treatment first, they completely misdiagnosed his condition. Had him in a drug induced coma for 3 weeks! Went to UTSW and they immediately worked him up for a lung transplant. He would have died at the VA hospital if he stayed a couple of more days.

He's 58 years old, all his children are grown and his only dependents are his wife and an ex wife. The family isn't going to be responsible for anything other than making sure he doesn't go back to his old lifestyle.

[mustangguy289]

They saved your father's life. What price should be put on that? $228k seems awfully low...

My profession is one of the only ones where someone else decides what your time is worth.

Well said... my original point of this thread was not that doctor's charge too much for their services... but the fact that it varies so much depending on how you pay.

Your profession is also the only one that can't tell the patient how much something costs for months after the surgery. The whole billing side of healthcare is where the problem lies.

Let me work on your car and in 3 months I will send you 10 bills... one for each item and then 3 more for labor. Oh wait, I had an assistant watch me work on your car, he will bill you serperately and it may take 6 months to process. See my point? I am not arguing that you charge to much.

[347Mike]

O don't get me wrong, to save my dads life and still have him around, theres no price tag you can put on a mans life like that, and its well worth it.
But when you hand an already stressed out man a bill that he can not pay, man you should of see his face, he nearly had another heart attack!

It is called job security.



JUST KIDDING, I am glad everything went well..

[Stunter Bob]

It is called job security.



JUST KIDDING, I am glad everything went well..

HAHAH no shit. My dad has had 3 sets of stints in his life, a single bypass many many years ago, a double bypass about 10 years ago, and just recently the quadruple bypass 4 years ago. And just had another heart attack 2 months ago where another set of stints were put in. Hes old and broken and falling apart, but hes my Dad and I am very thankful he is still with us.

[BP]

Let me work on your car and in 3 months I will send you 10 bills... one for each item and then 3 more for labor. Oh wait, I had an assistant watch me work on your car, he will bill you serperately and it may take 6 months to process. See my point? I am not arguing that you charge to much.

More accurately you'd have the shop owner send you one bill for leasing the lift/stall, the service writer another bill, you'd be billed for the parts seperately by the supplier, you'd pay a hazmat fee, be billed for the technician's labor, any supplies he personally used, depreciation on his tools, a bill from the porter, the wash bay attendant and the operator at the front desk.

It's a whole lot easier to pay the company doing the work up front and let them pay everyone accordingly but unfortunately with hospitals the doctors and nurses are contract labor usually and not actual employees, so they bill seperately. We all know how that'd work out though, you'd have the crappiest care possible from the cheapest doctor's available most of the time.