We have a good friend who had brain surgery to remove a tumor.. The operation lasted over 10 hours. They sent her home later the next day. She was in no condition to go home and her husband raised hell with the hospital. The surgeon couldn’t be reached so she went home. Same scenario with my mother, she was 88, had severe dementia and got a Urinary Tract Infection. She was really bad but the hospital sent her to a nursing home. It was pouring rain when they took her by ambulance. The next morning she was gravely ill and another ambulance took her back to the hospital. She passed in 2 days. Unbelievable

 

You should of charged him for the call Rob.

 

Blame the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration, and Congress.

 

People bash the country all the time - so if you don't like it - leave it. People bash the country's health system all the time - so if you don't like - leave it. I understand both the country and the health system are not perfect. I have personally taken on some areas where I thought both systems suck; and generally lost, but in the end I would not want to be in any other country or protected by any other health system.

 

Patricia, did you try to fight those bills? If I'm using a network provider and they refer me for some services that aren't in my network, I'd be fighting that bill.

I've done my time with HMO's which is why we opted for traditional Medicare with a supplement vs any of the Advantage plans.

I would guess your provider has Medicare plans. Either a Medicare Advantage plan or you can opt for traditional Medicare with supplements for the things Medicare doesn't pay and for prescriptions. Do your homework early on to find out what works best for you with your medications. You will likely have a large co-pay for Enbrel and there are other factors involved when it comes to expensive medications. According to research in the journal Rheumatoid ArthritisTrusted Source, 2013 data showed that most Part D plans required people to pay a coinsurance averaging 29.6% of the costs of the prescribed biologic. Like I said, you will have homework to do!

 

Thank you for that information! I have two years to go so I'll wait a while before looking into it.

I did try fighting the bills. The bottom line was I paid them because Kaiser said I was shit out of luck. I could have filled forms to request reimbursements but I didn't want to hassle it.

 

Some of my notes, for whatever they are worth * Medicare is primary and Medigap is secondary. * Medigap plans generally have higher premiums with low or no co-payments. * Advantage plans generally have lower premiums but require co-payments for services. * We select this over the Advantage plan which is restrictive; you use local doctors & hospitals within an HMO plan * Purchase Medicare Part D separately for prescription coverage.

 

I've often joked that when i get the itemized bill fro a hospital I look for the janitorial fee since they are the only ones who came in my room and didn't charge me for it.
I guess the facility fee would be their charge.

 

I did. The step down room our friend was put in was filthy so that blame is the hospitals.

 

My view is far from that. I think that healthcare for profit is so very wrong and will never work properly from the patient's perspective. The World Health Organization ranks the US healthcare system thirty eighth (that's 38th!!!) in the world and at a cost of nearly double that of the number 1 ranked system. That angers me right to my very core.