Bill N
Well-known member
Bob Buchanan said:The part I really like is that the hospitals bill in the thousands, and Kaiser only pays them in the 100's. If they bill $10,000 for a procedure or on call doctor, Kaiser will only pay what medicare allows - then the hospital just writes off the rest. The notifications to me mentioning the difference ends with a statement like, "You are not responsible for payment of this difference."
Reminds me of an interesting story in the local rag a few weeks ago. People were asking how the two very large hospitals in our area could possibly be 'non-profit' when they charged those humongous amounts. The answer is simple: They charge the large amounts, Medicare or private insurance pays much lower amounts and the remainder is 'written off' but it is shown as a loss and therefore just about every transaction is a loss and the institution is a 'non-profit'. Of course there are hundreds of other legal requirements but that is the heart of how non-profit is determined.
As of me, after reading all the posts on this thread I thank my lucky stars I have Medicare and Tricare For Life (TFL). a Medicare supplement, from my military retirement. Most of my drugs are either free, or $13 for 90 day supplies. I doubt that my wife or I have paid more than $100 for medical services (not including Medicare premiums) over the past 5 years. We have both had cataract surgeries and the wife has had four surgeries for various things over the years with no charges. My son recently had a policy requiring an $8000 deductible before it paid anything and he had a huge hernia that we thought could be life threatening. We gave him the deductible and he got the hernia (turned out to be 5 hernias) repaired. If you don't your health you have nothing.