The Old Folks Home

[CSolis]

I'm up I'm up, bed is made.. nursing my second cuppa.. Still pissed about my little pullet with the blue feathers on her saddle area. She found a way out of the coup (found her outside trying to get back in morning before yesterday)... Yesterday morning all I found was a pile of feathers. I thought her getting out the first time was just one of those freak things, but guess not.

 

[CLSranch]

Good morning all OF's.

 

[cheepteach]

no Atom Ant here! up and on 2nd wash load going

 

[microchick]

BS. It's much cheaper out of pocket because if you pay your not the insurance company paying someone else to not pay the bill. Also I rarely have Ins and it's always a lot cheaper after I tell them I'm paying cash.

I don't know what to tell you. They cheat me you and everyone. $50 for some fing asprin, one dose, No they are not making money. I got a $15,000 dollar bill once after getting tired of not gettting treated and walked out.

Yes it is high. Didn't start that way. Then Insurance got involved and they started paying people to not pay the hospital so they charge more to get it to equal out. Oh I did have insurance for a while, when it was affordable before Obama care. The Law suits made everything bad. (It does help keep them from messing up on purpose/not caring)

Do. Again they try like hell to not pay. Double down bad since Obama care.

Yep. That's why I don't. And I keep the interest.
Then pay the Dr. on top of it.

Playing the Dr.s office as the poor poor person gets me riled. Also any fing idiot who can get through college with any great debt should've spent a year working before college and continued while in college using that money to pay off debt not get a nicer phone and letting the intrest go up is just an idiot.

Sorry about the rant, but a personal issue when I have friends and family in the medical field and various bills not associated with them.
Again there is usually a cash discount not hike up. Maybe not in your Husbands practice but everywhere else.

Sounds like you are getting kinda person there, my friend. And I will not say BS but say you are entitled to your opinion just as I am entitled to mine. Only I have lived this and not many other people have. It would be interesting to see how many doctor's spouses are here on BYC anyway and what their opinions of this discussion are.

Seriously. My husband served his country in order to have his education funded for him and worked on the side throughout college. And paid off any loans in a timely manner.

And yes, we are going to have to agree to disagree about this. It riles ME hearing people talk about doctors as being richers. Undoubtedly some are but why are they? They spend years of their lives in training, fork out the bucks for that education. What are they going to do? Charge $14.95 for a carotid artery resection? You cannot work for one year before going into medical college and expect to fund it with what you make in that one years time. Not in today's economy and not with today's sue happy society.

I won't argue all points of your rant. Not worth getting more upset. But I will say this. My own DO has a system where if you do not have insurance and pay at the time of service, the charge is 50% of the entire fee for that day. If a Medicare patient goes in there, that patient will pay a copay + 20% of the approved charges. Doctor writes off the rest. In the end the doctor will lose money on both patients because he will be writing off profit that goes to paying staff and operating expenses.

Plus you would not believe the amount of money we lost in our practice because of people who drive Hummers and live over their heads life styles stuck us for non-payment of fees for medical services that we rendered. I asked somebody once who came in to pay their bill after being turned into collection if they would think of walking out of Walmart with a cart full of whatever without paying for it. They told me no, of course not. Well, that was what they were trying to do to us and patients do it every day to every doctor in America. Problem is that you never know WHO is going to stick you for thousands of dollars.

Deadbeats are part of the big problem in an even bigger picture.

Yes doctors live for the most part in nice homes in nice neighborhoods and drive nice cars. But by God, THEY EARN IT! They do not say oh well, I can make 15.00 an hour working at Micky D's asking 'do you want to supersize that order'. They CHOOSE to become doctors with all the crap and yes I do mean crap that goes along with it. Doctors who choose to practice in small rural communities are not substandard doctors. They are men and women who want to serve areas that really need medical care no matter what branch of medicine they are in whether they be veterinarians or podiatrists. The need is there but hardly any doctor can afford to work in communities any more where they may be approached to accept barter as a form of payment from their clients.

And yes that does happen. Barter isn't going to pay a malpractice insurance plan that can cost 10s of thousands of dollars a year to fund. So they go the the big cities and rural folks have to drive hours some times in order to reach the specialist that they need to see after waiting over 3 months to get an appointment. But if you are a compassionate medical professional who really cares about your patients, you remove the chunk of metal from a patient's eye who doesn't have insurance and who's business is struggling because of the economy and you agree to whatever he or she has to offer for payment. Because you care.

THAT is the difference between a big city doctor and a small town doctor.

Sometimes I really think I don't belong here any more. After all, I am one of those richers....haha.

 

[getaclue]

Years ago, the pediatrician that tended my children before he retired, his wife began working in his office. She began collecting the money owed to her husband. I had asked her if it was really that bad, and if her efforts were paying off. She assured me that the answer to both, was yes. She said it would make all the difference in the world to them, when he retired.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning Old Folks sitting with my second cup.
Hope this finds all healthy here.

 

[CSolis]

My 2 Cents.. I don't think it's the doctors that have gotten greedy, but insurance companies and big pharma are pushing prices sky high. We won't mention the cost of equipment, procedures, etc. I just had a dexa scan done at the local hospital.. the bill was for $300+, and the VA Optum Serve Insurance paid them a whopping $90 something.
And for Pete's sake, why does everything have to be so 'specialized'? Stub a toe and you get a referral to a podiatrist.. You mean to tell me a regular physician doesn't know how to treat a stubbed toe?

 

[cheepteach]

I think everything is specialized now because America is sue happy---drs have to cross all t's and dot all i's, and risk a lot making the smallest determination. they want other drs to help corroborate diagnosis

 

[microchick]

Years ago, the pediatrician that tended my children before he retired, his wife began working in his office. She began collecting the money owed to her husband. I had asked her if it was really that bad, and if her efforts were paying off. She assured me that the answer to both, was yes. She said it would make all the difference in the world to them, when he retired.

We had an office manager steal over 45,000 dollars from our practice before I started working with my husband. He told me I was the only 'person' he would trust working with him from that point on. We did several presentations about such embezzlements and I told doctors to stick their wives in the front office a day a week and have her watch what is going on. She won't break her nails or smudge her make up and she might save them a bunch of money.

They all agreed with me that it was a good idea.

It was an eyeopener for me. As a nurse I never handled that end of a medical business and man oh man, I was amazed at how many people wouldn't have their 10$ copay in their wallets when they came in. Even had some that would lower their heads, look at the floor and blow by me with me going HEY! WAIT! after them.

Yet these same folks come in and brag about their Australian vacations they were planning. Happens more times than you could ever imagine.

 

[ronott1]

Oh Sally, that's a bummer. Hope your fur baby does all right.

I'm calling my DO on Monday and see if I can't get in to see him and talk to him about what happened and get this flare settled down more. I'm sure he won't be too happy when I tell him, especially since I had suffered with the pain for two more weeks than planned and then got stood up by them with no care offered till the end of next month.

Thanks for asking Ron. How is your wife doing?

She over did it on Friday and had some pain Saturday. She is better today.