POZ Community Forums
Off Topic Forums => Off Topic Forum => Topic started by: tednlou2 on February 25, 2013, 02:51:01 am
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Interesting read. The author was on This Week, this morning. He said if we LOWERED the Medicare eligibility age, instead of raising it, we would save billions. Medicare is very efficient, as we know. If they could negotiate drug prices, durable medical equipment, and diabetes testing equipment, they would be more efficient. He said allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices would save over $120 billion over ten years. Medicare processes a claim for 80-90 cents, while private insurance spends up to $25 to process a claim.
We've all seen the outrageous prices for Acetominophen and routine labs. I remember going through physical therapy, after back surgery. They charged me $25 to put a reusable ice pack on me. I could buy several ice packs for that. They charged that each time.
In the hospital, I had two infectious disease docs pop in for less than 5 mins. They just said everything will be fine and people go on to live long lives with HIV. They both charged nearly $250 for that. I could have done without their visit. They didn't even consult with the attending doc, so that is how the mono-therapy ordeal happened. If they had done their jobs, that should not have happened. I do wonder how much money these consulting docs make nationwide, by just making an appearance, and not providing actual medical care. Of course, there is much more involved than ice packs and consulting docs.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
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In the hospital, I had two infectious disease docs pop in for less than 5 mins. They just said everything will be fine and people go on to live long lives with HIV. They both charged nearly $250 for that. I could have done without their visit.
I saw this happen over and over while mom was in the hospital. She had 3 lead docs, and often they would just pop in for literally 1 minute to ask how she was feeling and tell her they would see her tomorrow. At first I thought what a great friendly, attentive doctor. But then when I started getting the bills in I noticed that they were charging her for a "limited hospital visit" or something like that, to the tune of $150 (just to ask how she was feeling) Sometimes this would happen twice a day. Occasionally they would put a stethoscope to her chest for 30 seconds and then walk out and charge $250 for "comprehensive hospital visit".
But When I looked at the bills I noticed that even though the doc was charging these amounts moms medicare would only pay a fraction of it...say $25-50, and I also noticed that Medicare was disallowing alot of other charges. So for Medicare patients I wonder if these presumably un-needed visits are a way for doctors to make up, or pad, for what Medicare is disallowing on other procedures. I'm sure this is commonplace in the Medical industry.
And don't even get me started on the "in hospital" Tylenol. Mom could have saved Medicare thousands of dollars if only they had let us bring in our own Tylenol.
-W
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I saw the author on Daily Show. Very interesting...
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during the recent SC Task Force Advocacy Day, we had a Senator throw this kind of information up in our faces. He wanted to know why we were asking the state to continue funding $4.3 million to ADAP yearly. He explained that a small "non-profit" hospital in our area had made over $684 million dollars profit last year. He wondered why we would ask the government for ADAP funding when this one small local hospital could spend .6% of it's profit and cover ADAP for the entire state.
I responded that if the State put in place some regulations that stopped a non-profit hospital from being able to accrue nearly 3/quarters of a billion dollars profit in a year, taking that money out of circulation, then perhaps South Carolinians would have enough money in their pockets to pay for their own medications and we wouldn't have to be asking for the Senator's help.
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during the recent SC Task Force Advocacy Day, we had a Senator throw this kind of information up in our faces. He wanted to know why we were asking the state to continue funding $4.3 million to ADAP yearly. He explained that a small "non-profit" hospital in our area had made over $684 million dollars profit last year. He wondered why we would ask the government for ADAP funding when this one small local hospital could spend .6% of it's profit and cover ADAP for the entire state.
I responded that if the State put in place some regulations that stopped a non-profit hospital from being able to accrue nearly 3/quarters of a billion dollars profit in a year, taking that money out of circulation, then perhaps South Carolinians would have enough money in their pockets to pay for their own medications and we wouldn't have to be asking for the Senator's help.
What kind of dimwit logic is that? Jesus Christ Almighty. Is he Republican? Hillary's category - those who refuse to live in a fact-based world....?
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Jesus Christ Almighty. Is he Republican?
Of course! This is South Carolina where most state legislators are, have been, and probably forever will be Republican. Oh! and Tea Party Republican to boot. ;)
on a national level I could mention that Jim Demint (Tea party leader), Lindsey Graham (I wish someone would out him already, so the Rethugs would disown him), Joe Wilson ("you lie" Obama), Strum Thurmond, Tim Scott (the most rare politician of all - a 'black' South Carolina Republican) and Mark Sanford (the governor missing in Argentina, not "hiking") come from SC, so it shouldn't be a surprise that our state government is filled with crazy people too.