Doris asks a good question (ploitics)

[August]

It's more than that though.

A couple of years ago I had a minor heart attack. I went to the emergency room and inside of 20 minutes later they were wheeling me into surgery to install 2 stents in my right coronary artery. That, plus 2 days in the hospital for observation, cost 70 thousand dollars.

The last night I was in the hospital they moved me from IC down to the regular ward at 11pm since according to the hospital rules they never release people right out of IC. I wasn't there very long as I was released at 9am. That part of the bill alone was almost a thousand dollars. There is just no way that parking me for a mere 10 hours in a shared room was worth 1k.

[tater]

What amount was actually paid? Do you know for a fact $70,000 was paid out, or was that just what was billed? Again, in healthcare the amount on the invoice has exactly nothing to do with how much they actually get paid. The amounts seen on bills might as well be Quatloos.

[tater]

BTW, the hospitals seem to always have huge bills. Their CEOs don't seem to be missing any meals, even with medicaid patients as the bulk of patients. Docs who see medicaid have to bust their chops just to make ends meet.

The bottom line is that nothing at all in the current health law---nothing---addresses the problem of increased costs. The law will in fact increase costs and decrease quality of care. Take that to the bank.

[August]

Originally Posted by tater

What amount was actually paid? Do you know for a fact $70,000 was paid out, or was that just what was billed? Again, in healthcare the amount on the invoice has exactly nothing to do with how much they actually get paid. The amounts seen on bills might as well be Quatloos.

It was itemization of expenses from the insurance company, (along with a bill for 1k which was my deductible).

[tater]

Originally Posted by August

It was itemization of expenses from the insurance company, (along with a bill for 1k which was my deductible).

Yeah, they do that, but the amount actually collected was likely less. How much less I cannot say, and it would still be a HUGE amount of money, even if it was "merely" 60% of 70k, lol.

I know that the government hospital here has an abysmal collection %, though. My wife's old dept was 17%. No kidding.

So they bill $100,000, and collect on average $17,000. So everyone that actually pays needs to roungly pay 5 times what they should to make up for the losses. Then 70k doesn't look that bad, as it's 12k, which is not unreasonable.

I know a guy who is a radiology tech. He told me there is some drug they use in the scanner (dunno what it was, perhaps to calm people down). It comes in a glass bottle with several doses inside. Even though new needles are used for each patient at all times, they are not allowed to use the same bottle for 2 people. So you open the lid, fill the syringe, give 1 dose, or sometimes 2 if there is a lot of waiting, then throw the other 3-4 doses in the trash! Of course the jar is a couple hundred bucks or something like that. Waste!

Heck, at our house we use surgical scrub towels as dish towels. And I have various medical instruments in my tool box (hemostats, etc). Wife liberates them from the OR. She goes in and needs to do something really simple. There is a "tray" of stuff that is presterilized and wrapped. The nurse grabs the kit for whatever, and she might use ONE item on the tray to do what she needs to do. The rest gets thrown in the trash. While designed to be disposable, the trays are NOT cheap. So sometimes she'll bring me an unused tool that would otherwise be thrown away, or she'll grab the scrub towels that were unused and we have new dish towels. A lot of this has come about because of defensive care. On the off chance that somethign might get used twice, then they get sued, they just use everything once and throw it away.

[August]

Originally Posted by tater

Yeah, they do that, but the amount actually collected was likely less. How much less I cannot say, and it would still be a HUGE amount of money, even if it was "merely" 60% of 70k, lol.

I see your point but this came from the insurance company listing what they (claimed) they had paid the hospital, not a bill from the hospital itself.

They don't get money to pay for those who cannot pay. They eat the loss.

No, they get money from the government.
The last changes were in '86.
It is true they eat some of the loss, because it has never been properly funded and the mixture of federal and state tax revenues mean each State has different levels of government reimbursement.

This is the thing, the government CLAIMS they are paying for all this health care, but they actually pay the providers BELOW COST.

Ah, so you know your first bit wasn't accurate then.

Lets fix it.

They do get money to pay for those who cannot pay. But They eat some loss because it is underfunded.

[tater]

The loss is whatever is un or under funded. My "first bit" was exactly right. Loss is whatever they do not get paid. Those with government "insurance" pay, but pay below cost. The difference is unpaid, and un-reimbursed by anyone.

Not all hospitals are State facilities. Private hospitals get NOTHING from the government beyond medicaid/medicare reimbursement. The State hospitals get reimbursed by the State under various programs for "community health" but it's not like they show a loss on patient X's care, and get a check for the difference from Santa Fe. If they end up in the red, they might try for more next year. Might not get it, though.

We have 4 main hospitals here in ABQ (with branch hospitals as well).

Two are private, one is UNMH (University of New Mexico), and the last is the VA. Only UNMH and the VA are subsidized by the state or feds. If Pres has someone show up in the ER with no insurance who is ineligible for Medicaid, they eat 100% of whatever they cannot collect from the patient. If Medicaid or medicare pays below cost for care, they EAT IT, 100%.

Since they are a business, they eat nothing at all, they raise fees on those that DO pay that they have control over (ie: everyone who pays except medicaid/medicare since they have no control over how much those programs pay).