In any other industry, emergency medical billing would be considered fraudulent

[Mindysan33]

@LDoBe

There is no moral or ethical capitalist way to provide Healthcare. It is all rotten to the core.

[DukeTrout]

@doctorow

Why do insurers pay? Partly because insurers have no way to know whether you got a particular item or service. But also because it’s not worth their time to investigate the millions of medical interactions they write checks for each day. Despite the advertised concern about your well-being, as one benefits manager enlightened me: They’re “too big to care about you.”

Insurers benefit from paying more. The more they pay hospitals & doctors, the more profit they can fit in their 15% allowance. An insurer that grows their medical payout also grows their profit base.

[cre8love4all]

Is there any patient-controlled grassroots activist organization that isn’t controlled by nor gets funding from any special interests or members of the medical industry? I’m talking patients only? Nobody who gets a penny from the healthcare industry in donations, royalties, profits, salaries, premiums, commissions etc in any decision-making position in the organization?

[tekna2007]

I don’t know, but I’d start by looking at the work of Andy Slavitt and (separately) Wendell Potter.

[anon81034786]

@tekna2007

Wendell Potter.

More people should look up Wendell Potter and hear what he has to say

(BTW…this video was from 10 years ago)

BILL MOYERS JOURNAL | Wendell Potter on the Health Care Bill | PBS

Healthcare Reformer Wendell Potter: The For-Profit 'System Is Unraveling'

[Melted_Crayons]

Much (not all!) of health care is now legalized financial extortion. That includes the cost of medical insurance. At what point is this unacceptable?

[dontpanicbobby]

I know I probably billed this wrong but I added up the charges from the boing-boing article and got $10,506 USD for a total. Remind me never to ride a bicycle ever again.

[blondie]

Liked for “Pinto of insurance”. I almost made a mess of my keyboard.

[blondie]

Liked ironically because…

@LDoBe

This system is so fucking broken.

[anon25507830]

Most of these tactics seem par for the course for the cable industry. In fact, I’ve noticed a trend towards less pricing transparency in many sectors, but it’s most disturbing for healthcare.

[the_borderer]

@gracchus

And in any other industrialised Western country, the American health system would be considered a complete disgrace.

I was going to mention Britain if the Tories win the election this week, but if they do then I don’t think it will be an industrialised country by the time they are finished.

[dman]

Normally, I’m content to stand on the sidelines, point, and laugh at the American healthcare (billing) system.
But this simple breakdown of the excesses does make me outraged on your behalf.
F’n inexcusable that the graft has become so ingrained in the system that all the numbers are made up, everyone knows it, all the insurers just rubber-stamp it, and then they all gouge you for the levies, and the humans lose.