A month ago my wife was bitten by a stray cat. A series or Rabies shots was found necessary so we went the hospital for treatment.
The initial treatment was a series of shots followed by subsequents shots at 3, 7, 14 and 28 days.
The hospital billed $18,621 in total, we were amazed when we saw the bills!
The insurance provider paid $6,911 and denied $11,213 which the hospital accepted.
We paid $497 in co-pay.
If we had not had insurance we would have had to pay the full amount of $18,621.
The interesting part is that because we had insurance the hospital accepted $11,213 less than if we had not had insurance. One has to wonder why a person paying out of his own pocket would be expected to pay that much more,over twice as much, for the same treatment.
So, is our medical system broken?
yes
Each company has it’s own wainitg period. Check about COBRA coverage and see if it’s something you can have until your new policy takes effect. COBRA is kind of a gap insurance so if you lose your job, you have a short period of time to keep the coverage until you can do something else. Unfortunately, the cost is usually more than we can afford because of a job change or loss. If you have coverage where your company pays part of your monthly premium, once you go to COBRA, you have to pay the full amount since your company will no longer pay their part. Kind of *****. Good Luck anyway
Annette Pappas of Brockton, Mass., a medical billing administrator who has worked in hospitals and doctor’s offices, haggled over her own steep fees after developing breast cancer in 2005 while self-employed and without insurance. Knowing she’d need to tap a home equity credit line to pay for her $19,000-a-week chemotherapy and Herceptin shots, Pappas negotiated with the hospital before beginning treatment. “I said, ‘I’m paying for my own health care and can’t afford to pay you these charges. Can you work with me?’” The sympathetic billing manager gave her a 45 percent discount. “I knew that was well in line with what the insurance companies would have paid,” Pappas says.