I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: News Articles => Topic started by: rcjordan on July 22, 2019, 05:16:49 AM

Title: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: rcjordan on July 22, 2019, 05:16:49 AM
NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/07/22/743180947/first-came-kidney-failure-then-there-was-the-540-842-bill-for-dialysis
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: iolaire on July 22, 2019, 05:20:59 AM
Outrageous.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Michael Murphy on July 22, 2019, 10:51:26 AM
Not only on Dialysys but mugged by his provider, your money or your life.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Charlie B53 on July 22, 2019, 10:23:36 PM

Pure Corporate GREED!

I'm half ashamed to admit I go to a Fresenius clinic.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: jambo101 on July 22, 2019, 11:36:34 PM
Isnt American healtcare fun.. >:(
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Alexysis on July 23, 2019, 06:19:22 AM
Soo.....Medicare pays $235/session, and the vast majority of dialysis patients are on Medicare......and they make almost nothing off the Medicare patients, yet......they make $2 BILLION in profits every year? Wow, SOMETHING doesn't add up here....
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Michael Murphy on July 25, 2019, 07:49:25 PM
The Medicare payment is 80% of around 370 dollars and that provides a small profit of around 10%.  The reason the big companies charge outrageous rates is that they will take a tax write off when the patients declare bankruptcy the tax savings is about 1/3 the amount charged.  Which works out to be about what private insurance pays.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Simon Dog on July 27, 2019, 03:17:23 PM
I call it the visiting arab price.

When I was on private insurance and D, my company paid between $3000 (Fresenius) and $5050(DaVita) for out of town dialysis at facilities they did not have a price negotiated contract with.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Alexysis on July 27, 2019, 04:48:49 PM
I call it the visiting arab price.

When I was on private insurance and D, my company paid between $3000 (Fresenius) and $5050(DaVita) for out of town dialysis at facilities they did not have a price negotiated contract with.

No, they "charged" them that. I guarantee that they didn't "pay" them that. It's all just a game of smoke-and-mirrors. Anything that appears in an insurance statement or a medical bill is about 95% fiction.
Title: Re: Bill Of The Month: Montana Man's Half-Million-Dollar Dialysis
Post by: Simon Dog on July 27, 2019, 05:18:05 PM
I call it the visiting arab price.

When I was on private insurance and D, my company paid between $3000 (Fresenius) and $5050(DaVita) for out of town dialysis at facilities they did not have a price negotiated contract with.

No, they "charged" them that. I guarantee that they didn't "pay" them that. It's all just a game of smoke-and-mirrors. Anything that appears in an insurance statement or a medical bill is about 95% fiction.
You would be wrong.

My insurance company sent statement (for all my claims) showing billed and paid amounts.  Locally, there was a large spread.   Out of town, paid was equal to the billed amount.

Ambulance costs ($5900 for a 17 mile hospital to hospital transfer) were also paid at asking price.