Unbelievable hospital markup

[rjundi]

The idiocy of not funding prescription drugs also fuels wasted medical services and drives costs.

My wife has homeless folks(mental and physical ailments) released typically too early who clearly will never afford prescription drugs. They never can purchase scripts so they come back for more emergent medical and surgery services that never get paid.

She works in a state with mandated health insurance. In her eyes turned out to be a way of the state government to stop funding hospitals since "mandated" insurance was going to cover it.

 

[mechanicx]

I don't see anything xenophobic about pointing out real issues caused by illegals (who are illegally here to begin with). What's the opposite of xenophobic, naive lol? That's probably the real problem with most Americans.

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Claims of widespread use of 3 IDs and an Escalade strikes me as xenophobic. Just sayin'.

If we're going to do something to turn away illegal immigrants, why should we wait until they're crippled? That's not sporting.


WOW, Just telling how it is in an area that has a very high illegal immigrant population, with friends and family that work in social services, construction, agriculture, and health care, and now I'm being accused of being xenophobic which is another word for racist?

Must be nice in that ivory tower up in Maine. This is why the problems of this country will never be solved. Instead of having an intelligent conversation we resort to name calling and the use of generic labels to get our way.

The view from the tower must be nice......


Sigh...xenophobic means that you have an unreasonable fear of foreigners or strangers...and geography and acquaintance are not race, so it's not the same word and it's not tantamount to saying that you're racist...but you sure responded quickly and sharply on the point, so you do seem quite sensitive about it...are you, in fact, overly sensitive about foreigners and strangers?

Is that precluding you from seeing his point and launching into the ivory tower insinuation?

You just judged him on the basis of geography (a person from Maine...yada, yada...)...which shows a willingness to stereotype and, well, a bit of xenophobia.

For a lot of us, our BITOG profile has little to do with where we grew up, lived, or have experienced life...we're more than the one data point you see in a profile. As an example, I am not from Virginia, the Navy saw fit to assign me here, after living in roughly 19 different states/countries in my life...

So, be careful about leaping to conclusions...or quickly sterotyping those from different places than you...


I know what the definition of xenophobic is, but I also know how it is used when the subject of illegal immigration comes up. I'll admit the ivory tower comment was a little over the top, but when accused of being xenophobic before coffee, it gets my dander up. For that I apologize.

Illegal immigration is one of those subjects that is covered in soundbites, but no real discussions - and is slightly off topic for the high hospital bill in the original post. For the record, I have also had the pleasure of living and visiting several areas of the this country and world. I work daily with people from all over the world. I would not have a business if I was xenophobic.

Have a great day.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: kb01
Originally Posted By: CivicFan


The biggest drain on a hospital are the uninsured patients, the patients with high deductible plans and Medicaid patients in that order. Things will get better if all goes as planned for the next couple of years.


Do you have a citation for those with high deductibles being a drain on hospitals?

I have a HDHP and I pay the Bluecross contract rate for all of my family's medical care. The only difference between me and someone with a PPO is that I pay the first several thousand out-of-pocket instead of the insurance company.


Same for me, only mine is with Aetna. Never been an issue, and if I had an alternate Aetna plan, the same total amount would have been paid.

The only "inefficiency" I can see is that the provider has to submit the bill to insurance to get the adjustments to send the bill to me. Then again there is no copay in its typical form, so that collection is saved.

 

[mechtech2]

People CAN'T pay. For most people, it is physically impossible for anything halfway major and up.
At $3,200 /day for a room, plus umpteen jillion fees, costs are out of hand in a few hours.
Something goes wrong, and you are in debt $140,000 a few weeks later.

 

[eljefino]

Okay let's say OPs doctor says well I had to charge 10x market rate because illegal aliens are sucking all the money out of the system.

There's a certain percentage of us, who will say, "he's right" and not think about it anymore. He is right, to a percentage, but allowing that answer to be the final answer, and resonate, is just dividing "us" as health care consumers/ voters, and the status quo continues.

If we eliminated illegals tomorrow, another scape goat would appear, like deadbeat dads not paying insurance or something. If the hospital had too much money because of a good year of overbilling, it would get swallowed up in a fancy new glass wing while an old wing full of serviceable equipment would get abandoned.

 

[PandaBear]

Here is the thing (without trying to make it political):

There is a huge percent of the issue of excessive hospital cost due to illegals, but I'd say the same if not more of the same people not buying their own insurances (via work or outside) are just as big of a problem as well. It is very geographical specific as Hollister will have a lot more illegal not paying the bill and Oakland will have more slum dwellers not paying the bill. This is especially true in the recession.

Remember, over half of our bankruptcies in the country is due to medical reason. One bad incident, and you lose everything you have (if you have anything to begin with). I've post a link to an article about the logistic industry and warehousing temp agency and how they skirt around paying minimum wage and even workers' comp, for LEGAL CITIZEN WORKERS. Go take a look at it.

You then add the multiplier to deal with the uninsured regardless of nationality, like bill collectors, lawyers, pencil pushers, etc, and we have the mess we have now.

 

[Sunnyinhollister]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Okay let's say OPs doctor says well I had to charge 10x market rate because illegal aliens are sucking all the money out of the system.

There's a certain percentage of us, who will say, "he's right" and not think about it anymore. He is right, to a percentage, but allowing that answer to be the final answer, and resonate, is just dividing "us" as health care consumers/ voters, and the status quo continues.

If we eliminated illegals tomorrow, another scape goat would appear, like deadbeat dads not paying insurance or something. If the hospital had too much money because of a good year of overbilling, it would get swallowed up in a fancy new glass wing while an old wing full of serviceable equipment would get abandoned.


It's not a s simple as that - nor did anyone say that high hospital bills are just due to an illegal immigrant population. I seriously doubt that the ER in Fargo, ND is swamped with illegal immigrants seeking health care but I would bet the bill for a hospital stay would be high. In Watsonville or Salinas it is a lot more of a problem, but not the ONLY problem leading up to high hospital bills.

BTW, most hospitals in this area are losing money or barely breaking even.

 

[Scott_Tucker]

Originally Posted By: Sunnyinhollister


BTW, most hospitals in this area are losing money or barely breaking even.


I wonder how the insurance companies are making out?

 

[65cuda]

I have a friend that worked for a hospital as a purchasing agent and found that even though he could find the same product at a lower and sometimes much lower price he had to buy from the one source. The one source? Just happened to be owned by the same company that owned the hospital.

 

[eljefino]

^ true, but mcdonalds franchisees have to buy hamburger patties from one source as well.

The accounting they use no doubt puts hollywood to shame.

 

[oppirs]

I'll just add a simple story.

Back in 2005 in Canada. I hyper-extended my left knee on a camping trip. Ambulanced 60 miles to the hospital. Taken care of fairly quickly in the ER, x-rayed, full leg brace, crutches & some pain killers.

Due to being from the USA. Before any work, Can you pay!! In the pain I was in here's my credit card. A few hours later...

Leaving the billing dept. I get a bill charged to my card for....A whopping $500.00

I said to the lady is this missing a "0's"? Nope! Included the ambulance trip in the bill.

Yup, something is majorly wrong. Another reason I love Canada.

 

[3311]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Okay let's say OPs doctor says well I had to charge 10x market rate because illegal aliens are sucking all the money out of the system.

There's a certain percentage of us, who will say, "he's right" and not think about it anymore. He is right, to a percentage, but allowing that answer to be the final answer, and resonate, is just dividing "us" as health care consumers/ voters, and the status quo continues.

If we eliminated illegals tomorrow, another scape goat would appear, like deadbeat dads not paying insurance or something. If the hospital had too much money because of a good year of overbilling, it would get swallowed up in a fancy new glass wing while an old wing full of serviceable equipment would get abandoned.

You need to face the fact that illegals are a huge drain on the system. And not some fictional strawman or innocent scape goat as you seem to believe.
There are approximately 12 million illegals here in the U.S., how many do you think purchase health insurance? There are approximately 50 million uninsured Americans. Do the math, almost 20% of the uninsured people here in the U.S. are illegals, people who shouldn't even be here!

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: 3311

You need to face the fact that illegals are a huge drain on the system. And not some fictional strawman or innocent scape goat as you seem to believe.
There are approximately 12 million illegals here in the U.S., how many do you think purchase health insurance? There are approximately 50 million uninsured Americans. Do the math, almost 20% of the uninsured people here in the U.S. are illegals, people who shouldn't even be here!


So are the other 80% of deadbeats ok with you?

 

[3311]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 3311

You need to face the fact that illegals are a huge drain on the system. And not some fictional strawman or innocent scape goat as you seem to believe.
There are approximately 12 million illegals here in the U.S., how many do you think purchase health insurance? There are approximately 50 million uninsured Americans. Do the math, almost 20% of the uninsured people here in the U.S. are illegals, people who shouldn't even be here!


So are the other 80% of deadbeats ok with you?
Of course not, but you sure seem to be OK with and in complete denial about the 20% that have no right to be here.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: oppirs
I'll just add a simple story.

Back in 2005 in Canada. I hyper-extended my left knee on a camping trip. Ambulanced 60 miles to the hospital. Taken care of fairly quickly in the ER, x-rayed, full leg brace, crutches & some pain killers.

Due to being from the USA. Before any work, Can you pay!! In the pain I was in here's my credit card. A few hours later...

Leaving the billing dept. I get a bill charged to my card for....A whopping $500.00

I said to the lady is this missing a "0's"? Nope! Included the ambulance trip in the bill.

Yup, something is majorly wrong. Another reason I love Canada.



Wife got Influenza A (swine flu, H1N1, etc) on a trip to Taiwan 2 years ago and went to the ER twice, as a foreigner, with IV and a bed in the hallway for 4 hours pending test result. The total bill is also only $126 USD.

You probably have to multiply everything by 10 in the US as well. We have the highest cost per capita in the world for medical expense yet we get lousy service with all sorts of excuses and scapegoats.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: 3311
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Originally Posted By: 3311

You need to face the fact that illegals are a huge drain on the system. And not some fictional strawman or innocent scape goat as you seem to believe.
There are approximately 12 million illegals here in the U.S., how many do you think purchase health insurance? There are approximately 50 million uninsured Americans. Do the math, almost 20% of the uninsured people here in the U.S. are illegals, people who shouldn't even be here!


So are the other 80% of deadbeats ok with you?
Of course not, but you sure seem to be OK with and in complete denial about the 20% that have no right to be here.


Originally Posted By: eljefino
Okay let's say OPs doctor says well I had to charge 10x market rate because illegal aliens are sucking all the money out of the system.

There's a certain percentage of us, who will say, "he's right" and not think about it anymore. He is right, to a percentage


If your goal is to rally me to hate illegals, it's not working. My vitriol is directed at those at the top, who let us fight amongst ourselves, while they continue to overbill for necessary services.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: oppirs
I'll just add a simple story.

Back in 2005 in Canada. I hyper-extended my left knee on a camping trip. Ambulanced 60 miles to the hospital. Taken care of fairly quickly in the ER, x-rayed, full leg brace, crutches & some pain killers.

Due to being from the USA. Before any work, Can you pay!! In the pain I was in here's my credit card. A few hours later...

Leaving the billing dept. I get a bill charged to my card for....A whopping $500.00

I said to the lady is this missing a "0's"? Nope! Included the ambulance trip in the bill.

Yup, something is majorly wrong. Another reason I love Canada.



In the US, $500 will scarcely cover an ambulance ride a couple blocks down the road. Your medical bill would've likely been 5-10 times as much.

Meanwhile hospitals claim they are just breaking even or losing money

. Maybe some of the hospital staff and executives are the reason? It's hard to do more than break even when they're setting their salaries approaching $1 million a year

.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Meanwhile hospitals claim they are just breaking even or losing money

. Maybe some of the hospital staff and executives are the reason? It's hard to do more than break even when they're setting their salaries approaching $1 million a year

.


The dirty trick to rob the system is to "pretend" to be a non profit and bill to the max, then pay the executives, doctors, single source supplier huge markup for the commodities that every developed nation pay less for.

Naturally, these non profit can then play victim and blame everyone else but themselves while laughing to the bank with millions in pay. Sutter Health is a great example of this abuse.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: PandaBear
Originally Posted By: mechanicx
Meanwhile hospitals claim they are just breaking even or losing money

. Maybe some of the hospital staff and executives are the reason? It's hard to do more than break even when they're setting their salaries approaching $1 million a year

.


The dirty trick to rob the system is to "pretend" to be a non profit and bill to the max, then pay the executives, doctors, single source supplier huge markup for the commodities that every developed nation pay less for.

Naturally, these non profit can then play victim and blame everyone else but themselves while laughing to the bank with millions in pay. Sutter Health is a great example of this abuse.


I know, seriously. I see it all the time.