Since I have seen the bills and I have seen the Medicare and insurance payments, I know that is bogus. I even brought it up to my provider. I know that many years ago, my daughter got her bill when she had a baby. At that time, she went into a rage about them charging $50 for aspirin. Their justification then as well as with my current provider now was that they have to make up the loss on major procedures that they are not properly paid for in order to stay in business.
In a similar strategy, talking to my truck parts supplier, he told me that large items like transmissions or engines, he sold at cost, maybe even a loss. He used this to attract customers who while there would buy small items, such as nuts and bolts, for a greatly inflated price. My observation is it would not be profitable for me to go to different stores to save 50 cents on a bolt. That's where his profit was. So I would pay the inflated price. When it came to buying an engine, a $100 dollar saving can pay for the gas and time shopping around.
And that is a preferable solution? Between all my specialists I have 5 different doctors. Being a troublemaker, I talk about my various treatments and prescriptions among each of them. And I get conflicting recommendations. Four of them I respect their recommendations, but one I don't. Yet he seems to be the best that's not miles away.Quote:
Originally Posted by artist
The only hospital near me has had a bad rep for years. Then they were taken over by Tenet. One doctor who has been with that hospital for years said it has gotten worse under Tenet. When I did go to that hospital, they didn't even have enough blood to give me, so they transferred me to another Tenet hospital about an hour away. There, while the nurses were fine, doctors seemed nonexistent. As for my stay, I was in there for six weeks. My specialist, who was with me from day one, indicated that he was ready to release me after about two weeks. In fact I was getting therapy to learn to walk again, after only a week and a half there. But because virtually no other doctors bothered to visit me and examine me, I collapsed, and ended up with about 4 more weeks in the hospital.
My specialist, who did come several times a week to visit me, looked at his x-rays of me and sonograms to see if he could verify the problem I complained about, which I had been complaining about from the fifth day I was in that hospital, but he said that was not his area of expertise and his x-rays and sonograms did not give him a clear view of that part of my body.
It was one of the regular nurses who diagnosed me and got the hospital to call in a specialist. It took him about two minutes to examine me and diagnose the very problem I had been complaining about for 5 weeks. He gave a prescription which arrived about an hour later. The next day my symptoms cleared, and that after noon they started therapy again to teach me to walk. Two days later I was released.
Once home I started getting the bills. One organization billed me for doctor visits for every day I was in the hospital, I never saw one of them. Although I notified Medicare, they would not go after the doctors because Medicare declined their bills and therefore had no loss. Of course those doctors continue to come after me.
So I don't buy your contention that reducing personnel and hiring lower skilled, cheaper doctors and personnel is acceptable. What they get doesn't cover what it costs, so they have to over-bill those they can squeeze money out of. We get lower quality care for a higher price!