The health care debate thread.

[tooblue]

Yup, and the hospital should and does know better. Like LA said, there are people there who know this like the back of their hand.

One of my favorites was when my son had to get stitches a while back... we had to do an ER visit and so the copay was $100. The total cost of the stitches was $700, the insurance payed $600, I get a bill for $160 not the $100 (I'm rounding numbers here). I call the hospital, obvious clerical error. After 20 minutes on the phone with them I am repeating this same math equation:
"Okay, so the total bill was $700?"
"Yes."
"And the insurance paid and you received $600?"
"Correct."
"And $700 minus $600 is?..."
"$100"
"So how much do I owe you?"
"$160"
"And why is this."
"Because that is what is left of what the insurance didn't cover."
"And there is nothing on the bill that I'm not seeing?"
"No, you are seeing all charged care."
"And total cost of care is $700."
"Yes."
"And you already got $600 of that from the insurance?"
"Yes."
"And aside from this, you still believe $700 minus $600 is $100?"
"Yes."
"So why do I owe $160 instead of $100?"
"Because that is what the bill says."
"Let's start over..."

Last time I had to take my two sons to the ER was for two broken legs in the same week. The older one broke his playing football the younger one broke his on the trampoline two days later. There was no bill for either of them, it was free. Though we did have to buy two walking boots ... well, not really, that was covered by my supplemental insurance.