i give up on doctors truly

[morgan617]

i got a bill from our gastro doctor saturday. it was the copay after my husbands insurance paid their share. the problem is, we already paid. when i called them today, the billing person said, we don't like what your insurance pays, so now we separate the bills. one for the doctor and one for the facility. well they do it in his office!!!!! i was so angry. so i said you guys are so money grubbing if you can't screw the insurance company, you just give it to the patient? she said huh? but i hung up. i wrote them a letter stating that since the doctors were obviously starving, how could we not get billed twice. living on my fixed income of a whopping 1000 a month, i'm sure they must be suffering, making far less than that. and i hope they sleep well at night. they have lost a patient that's paid for their building about 10 times over. my bp must be 1000/500 i am so angry. what is wrong with this world when all we are is production and not people anymore. i used to have so much respect for this doctor. but he is part of this decision making process and i can't afford to see him, even with insurance. i asked if there was going to be a separate charge on office visits because we had to sit in a room, as opposed to the waiting room. arrrgggghhhh no more doctors ever. period. morgan

[MightyMouse]

You should really call your insurance company--I had a doctor try that with me and it turned out what he was doing was illegal. In my case, I was part of a PPO, he was in-network, and was obliged to follow their contract pricing. Failure to do so would get him in BIG legal trouble. It's worth checking.

BTW, so long as you make a small payment regularly, they can't do anything to you. I've never done this, but I know someone who would write a doctor a monthly check for under a dollar. It cost them more to process it than that--between billing company he was using and his own overhead for his office staff.

Hang in there.

Nina

[ethansmom]

I just wanted to join your venting

Doctors (not all, but most) are the greediest people on the planet. And insurance companies are the most pain in the a@@ people in the world! My life has been so much easier without insurance- expensive, but simple!!

[Dawg Tired]

I had a breast biopsy about 4 years ago. The doctor did it in his office so I figured it would be covered under my HMO (New West). It wasn't. Sure enough, in fine print - procedures in the doctor's office were not covered. I asked the insurance company. "So, if he had admitted me to the hospital, taken me to the operating room and kept me there overnight, it would have been covered?". The answer was yes. Go figure! I think you should definitely report this to the insurance company.

[goldicedance]

Ditto for the problems with health insurance and doctors...I am always puzzled and angry that it costs the patient more to have something done as an outpatient that it does as an inpatient even though it is obviously costing the insurance company less. It always is nice to be able to vent with people who have similar problems.

We just keep on chugging. Keep a positive attitude although at times it is hard! We're with you all the way as we move down the POTS road.

[Jackie]

I totally agree with MightyMouse - I would check this one out with the insurance company. I'm not under the impression that they are allowed to do this (i.e. bill you what the insurance doesn't pay....not!)

[goldicedance]

On the other hand, I think insurance companies are the blame. If you look at what insurance reimburses the doctor, you c an see why docs need to find different ways to increase their revenue. This past fall, I was going to an EP who closed his office because he couldn't afford to keep it and his family going. He now works at NIH and is content on a government salary despite all the years of training and the gozzillions of tuitions he owes. Let's try to ease up a little on the doctors. There is plenty of blame to go around, I am afraid!

[Merrill]

Hear! Hear! Goldicedance, you've said it well. In my experience, it's the insurance industry, not the doctors... Sigh. It's a political problem as well as a social one. But there's an election coming up in November...

[MightyMouse]

I agree that insurance companies play a BIG part of the problem. Combine that with the cost of malpractice insurance for the doctors and we have the makings of a disaster...which has already come to bear where I live. Doctors are leaving the area in droves and those that stay have stopped doing what they consider "high risk" procedures that leave them more open to being sued. For example, my gyn's office stopped doing high risk pregnancy management and ALL obstetrics.

Nina

[morgan617]

i realize that different drs make different amounts. but this doctor makes, conservatively 300,000 per month in just endoscopies alone. the shortest our ins has paid has been 30 dollars short of what they asked for. when he has to move next door to me and try to decide whether to pay bills or buy food, i will feel sorry for him period. that being said i agree insurance companies have gotten out of hand completley, but not totally sure it's just the doctors getting scr@#$%. our rates are awful and our coverage worse every year. it is political but we the consumers are suffering as much if not more than any doctor out there. i say this as a nurse of 30 years. morgan