>>It’s the Terry-Gilliam-level of absurdity of the billing process. Absolutely no one will tell you how much things are, and when you ask, they sass you that it is a ridiculous question.
Here in India when my dad underwent bypass surgery, I checked the bills the breakdown is insane. This how a charge goes, Nurse comes to see you, so she wears a pair of gloves, that gloves is billed. And often something like 10x the price those are available in the regular pharmacy. Each and everything is billed, and you would be surprised just how many things like these can be be billed.
>>You’ll be asked to take a diagnostic not knowing whether it will cost $10 or $15000 . Even if you try to be responsible and call the provider (who isn’t your doctor, clinic, or hospital ) – they won’t be able to tell you.
Often some 'visiting doctor' comes to see you. Like in the case of my dad we were billed for a diabetic consultation, despite clearly telling them he wasn't diabetic, even more so, the same doctor came in the day before and had to told the same. We didn't need it. But you will see they bill you like 2000 rupees just for the person to enter the room say 'Hi' and exit.
>>The only thing I’m sure of is that there has to be tremendous amounts of incidental and deliberate corruption . Auditing a single patient’s billing is impossible – so a population’s worth is a goldmine .
In these situations most people are so stressed and anxious often people just have no mental bandwidth to fight side battles.
Its really a corrupt system to the core, and I don't see hospitals and doctors giving all this up anytime soon. Or even ever.
It’s funny that USA is supposed to be an advanced economy but all of those billing issues happen here. Nearly every procedure is preceded with a pointless “consultation” that is ~$1500 for 15 minutes convo with a doctor. It’s worse than an email basically “how are you feeling , what can i help you with – oh that’s normal we can’t do anything about that”. And all the same absurdity billing for gloves, baby aspirin .
We were laughing at some of the bills. Blood draw $500 . 10 minutes of work and a few dollars in disposables. Billed at $3k / hour.
Here in India when my dad underwent bypass surgery, I checked the bills the breakdown is insane. This how a charge goes, Nurse comes to see you, so she wears a pair of gloves, that gloves is billed. And often something like 10x the price those are available in the regular pharmacy. Each and everything is billed, and you would be surprised just how many things like these can be be billed.
>>You’ll be asked to take a diagnostic not knowing whether it will cost $10 or $15000 . Even if you try to be responsible and call the provider (who isn’t your doctor, clinic, or hospital ) – they won’t be able to tell you.
Often some 'visiting doctor' comes to see you. Like in the case of my dad we were billed for a diabetic consultation, despite clearly telling them he wasn't diabetic, even more so, the same doctor came in the day before and had to told the same. We didn't need it. But you will see they bill you like 2000 rupees just for the person to enter the room say 'Hi' and exit.
>>The only thing I’m sure of is that there has to be tremendous amounts of incidental and deliberate corruption . Auditing a single patient’s billing is impossible – so a population’s worth is a goldmine .
In these situations most people are so stressed and anxious often people just have no mental bandwidth to fight side battles.
Its really a corrupt system to the core, and I don't see hospitals and doctors giving all this up anytime soon. Or even ever.