Mastodawn

Alright, this is absolutely first world problems, but holy mother of healthcare, am I furious.

So, I saw a doctor in the #Baylor system (who have purchased most medical practices in the area), a few weeks ago. I paid the doctor at the time of the visit. ($165 after insurance). I knew there was a facility fee, but refused to pay it, because it's egregious.

I got an email this morning from Baylor saying I owed another $300 for facility fees. (I was waiting for the bill, so I could talk to someone about it.)

So I called and said "Hey, this charge is unreasonable, and well outside usual and customary fees."

And their response, as Bob is my witless was, "Our fees are defensible." Which means they had lawyers sitting up figuring out to the last penny what they think they can get away with.

Those lawyers never met me.

#medicalDebt #USHeathcare #profiteering

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MissConstrue 2d ago

So, I'm going to the mat on this facilities fee thing with Baylor. $300 to see a doctor and $300 to see a building is obscene.

I've been doing research, which was not at all easy, because damn, they bury this stuff.

There was a Medicare change, and medical practices can now charge facility fees if they are part of a hospital.

How it was interpreted by money men was "buy every medical practice and put them under the hospital umbrella, and poof, double billing".

So, I tracked down the billing code and was able to drill down into the APC and CMS and find out what Medicare would pay U&C. (Usual and Customary)

I have to start with the national unadjusted APC payment: $134.00, Apply locality and wage index adjustments, which have to be looked up somewhere else, and the end result of 6 hours of research and math:

$133.47 Which is still absurd, but almost a third less absurd.

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MissConstrue

And I recognize that at some point fighting this is more expensive in time and effort than just paying it, but dammit, up with this I will not put.

I'm standing on principle here, and that principle is that medicine should not be an extractive force in society. People shouldn't be left sick or untreated because some board member needs a third yacht.

When I got my doctorate in bioethics, I naively believed that the field of medicine was filled with people who wanted to help people. And for a large percentage of actual caregivers that's true. But they have been vampire-squidded by the vulture capitalists, and I don't know how to rescue them. (For the record, I ended up in tech because at the time, it was more ethical than hospitals...oh the 80s...we were all so innocent.)

fuck 'em up 😁

@MissConstrue
Kicking the medical Industrial complex in its privates is always the ethical thing to do.

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Maria Langer | 📝🛥️💎2d ago

@MissConstrue Medicine is profit motivated now, even if there are still providers within an organization who actually want to help. My primary care physician is a good example. He pretty much ignores Medical Center restrictions to provide good medical care. But the guy I'm seeing this week for my trigger thumb follows medical center rules, which include a meet and greet appointment where I'm not allowed to get any actual treatment. That means a minimum of two visits for any problem.

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MissConstrue 2d ago

@mlanger Yeah, at least when I saw the surgeon for my thumb cmc joint, he did the injection on first visit, and did X-rays in office, and didn’t charge a facility fee. His practice just got bought tho, so we’ll see in 3 months if that’s still true.

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swggrkllr3rd 2d ago

@MissConstrue Stay there, and do what you can. And here's a little pick you up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QE-_3b7bqRM&list=RDQE-_3b7bqRM

George Winston - Pachelbel's Canon on Piano

YouTube

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MissConstrue 2d ago

@swggrkllr3rd 🤘🏼🥰