X-Post (complaint) Monopoly Money and Voodoo Economics

[meredithcarole]

So I feel compelled to share this (probably from being in shock still from seeing the numbers). Here is the layman breakdown of my hospital bill from my out patient surgery last month.

$69,007.19 (Hospital: This is the money our esteemed institution would really like someone to pay us)
$42,508.43 (Insurance: The first number isn't happening, we are also a business, you need to reduce it by this amount)
$24,167.21 (Hospital: fine.) (Insurance: Look at what we did for you, consumer!)
$2,331.55 (Insurance: but we aren't really paying the whole thing. Here's where you cash out 3 weeks of vacation to chip in - we would ask for more, but it turns out you have reached your $8,000 out of pocket maximum for the year. Have a nice day.)

And I have officially paid out enough money in health care for 2014 to claim it on my taxes. Hurrah.

[mom2boxers]

Have you made the payment yet?

After I had LO, I asked the hospital and they gave me 10% or 15% off the final total for paying in full. Although I've heard of this being near 20% for some hospitals. They didn't care about the method I used either (cash, credit card, Flex Spending). If you've already paid, you might call back and see if they would reimburse you anything since it doesn't sound like you set up a payment plan with them.

[aswedishbee]

Boo. The system is so ridiculous.

[boobacat]

Wowza

[vh2014]

What's even more ridiculous is that if you didn't have insurance you would pay the full 69K and the people without insurance are the ones that need to pay 47K instead. I used to joke that my insurance I had when I had my business was my "discount card" it didn't pay anything most of the time but it brought the price down. Such a stupid game.

[lickwed]

How can they make you pay with vacation days? That's through an employee plus if you don't have those days, then you can't pay. I have never heard of that. The bill doesn't surprise me though. My D&C was $12,000 and when I had DD, they actually charged more to check her when she was born and take her to the NICU than my vaginal delivery. That was separate from the actual NICU stay. Hospital charges are crazy.

[meredithcarole]

Jan 23, 2015 15:02:59 GMT -5 lickwed said:

How can they make you pay with vacation days? That's through an employee plus if you don't have those days, then you can't pay. I have never heard of that. The bill doesn't surprise me though. My D&C was $12,000 and when I had DD, they actually charged more to check her when she was born and take her to the NICU than my vaginal delivery. That was separate from the actual NICU stay. Hospital charges are crazy.

I just got a payout on vacation - unrelated to this they leveled everyone's playing field on vacation.  The bulk of my pay out will be used so I don't have to tap into savings. Personal choice, not mandate

[lickwed]

Gotcha!