I work as a Nurse Practitioner, and recently delivered at the hospital I work at even though it’s 40 miles from where I live and there are many other hospitals closer to home for me. I opted to do this for several reasons, but mostly because it’s the only tier 1 preferred hospital in my area for my insurance plan. Even though I opted for one of the higher coverage PPO plans my employer offers, I am still forced through their preferred providers and hospital systems (which is really only my place of work).
Thankfully, I had an uncomplicated spontaneous (no induction) vaginal delivery, baby is perfectly healthy and required no higher level of care. It was as smooth a course as anyone could ask for. I was discharged right at 24 hours after delivery.
My bill (pre-insurance) is $25k. I haven’t received the bill for the baby yet.
Luckily, I delivered prior to the new year so my deductible was met. Otherwise I’d be stuck paying at least 10% of that due to the new deductible.
I already am well aware that health insurance in the US is a racket. I knew this already from performing some of my basic job functions which include obtaining insurance authorizations and appealing insurance denials which often are ridiculous and not even based on current best practices. I have reported insurance companies to the Attorney Generals office for fraud in the past for wrongly upholding denial of coverage for my patients (turns out that solves the issue right quick).
This experience just served to also remind me how ridiculously inflated health care costs are. No wonder insurance companies wrongly deny service coverage, when they are being asked to pay $25k for something done through their preferred system that I could have done at home for free (in hindsight I technically could have, not that I personally would ever have been comfortable with that).
Luckily I have the tools and experience to navigate insurance and health care billing. What about all the people that don’t and they just pay whatever bill is sent to them? Those are the people these companies prey on for their profits.
Makes me sick thinking about it. But can’t get too sick, or I’d be at the mercy of the system again.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét