I don't think of it as a reflection on society, but on this one particular douche bag.Originally Posted by Progmatic
And yes, it is expensive, but it's expensive, not in some small measure, to douche bags. Who's going to have to foot the bill? The next person in line.
4... 3... 2...
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Obviously there is not enough info to draw conclussions in this case but just hypothetically if the person dies on the street after the medical help is refused who should be held responsible for it? Is he an automatic douch bag if he cannot afford the insurance and has to use the tricks to get help he needs?
Also health care does not have to be expensive but since the healthcare is the big business and everyone wants their profit share of your misfortune...
US_spends_much_more_on_health_than_what_might_be_expected_1_blog_main_horizontal.jpg
"No, seriously, I'm Floyd ! Look, my picture's on the album cover !!"Don't you recognize me? I'm Floyd from Pink Floyd.
261036537165.jpg
A hospital in the US. Healthcare is big business.
With the emphasis on "big" and "Business."
Say you have a car & it's running out of gas, do you pull up to a gas station, put some fuel in, & expect to drive away without paying for it?
You're hungry, so why not stop by the local grocery store & start munching away?
If you take - you pay.
It's a fact of life: you're going to get sick. Should we have systems established that will try to ameliorate illness or should we just let the various diseases take their natural course? If you choose from column A, do you expect somebody to do it for you for free?
I'm not saying that the healthcare industry -& I'm choosing my words very carefully- can't do with some trimming of the fat. But what all of you have to realize how much service is rendered yet unreimbursed. In 2012 I collected only 62% of what I billed, (which was down from 2011's 74%). As a result, my office had to let 2 people go. Any guesses how much of that non-payment was due to the kind of theft of which this Gilmour-imposter is accused? Almost 93%!
So, the trickle down is this, in hard, real, tangible language: my costs go up to try to say afloat & continue to render the kind of care that my patients deserve, & a few more people are unemployed.
This kind of theft is epidemic. I know. I & many of my colleagues been subject to it for over 20 years.
And if you think I'm living high on the hog, I want you to know that I'm hoping for a few more years out of my 18-year old Jeep; my family didn't go on any vacation last year (& probably won't this year), I'm still using the same cell 'phone I got in 2002, & I have (& use) the same stereo I used in college (graduated 1976).
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
You've pretty much described what's wrong with a profit-based healthcare system, instead of one that is service-based and, heaven forbid, state-supported. How about the homeless veteran who has given more than you or I could ever give to our country? Should he be forced to go untreated? What if its' something simple that can save his life, but he doesn't have the money because he never recovered from combat trauma to reintegrate with society? How about the handicapped and otherwise disadvantaged? Should they not have access to good, affordable healthcare?
An MRI in Japan costs about $200.00, whereas it cost about $2000.00 in the US. While I'm not comparing this to your practice and the challenges you're facing, which are real, can't those charging two grand for an MRI take a 35% reduction and still survive?
Needless to say, this is a complex issue.
Ron, "complex" is too simple a word.
It may come as a shocker but medical care in this country can be, & often is, free. Go to any Emergency department in the country & ask how many of the patients who are seen will never pay one cent. National average: 28%.
Any veteran, & I say this with 26 years of Naval service under my belt, has access-on-demand to the federal medical system, aka: the VA. It's a bitch getting in, to be sure, but that is a perfect example of how a "state-supported" medical system works.
What's different about the medical systems in the following countries vs. the US: Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Austria, France, Sweden, Holland, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, Japan, & Taiwan.
#1: their medical costs are lower.
#2: there is a cap on the financial cost of lawsuits
#3: if you sue & lose, you pick up the legal costs of both parties
#4: physicians & hospitals malpractice premiums are about 10-15% of what they are in the US
#5: they have systems in place to attempt to avoid overuse/misuse of their healthcare systems
#6: no one is traveling to those countries to get the medical care they can't get here
Like I said, it's extraordinarily complicated. Coupled with wall-to-wall lawyers, unscrupulous physicians (I worked with 2), & a sizable portion public that is hell-bent on getting anything & everything so long as someone else pays for it, it has to collapse. And when it does...
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
I would've liked to see how he looked like to see if he resembles David.
Simple solution: a national health care coverage based on taxes (duck)
Uncle Floyd!! Yeah!! I wish somebody would show reruns of that old show. Floyd Vivino was hilarious and one heck of good piano player.
Lou
Looking forward to my day in court.
What kind of theft are you saying is responsible for 93% of the 38% of unreimbursed service you provided in 2012? I'm just curious to know, I'm not at all challenging you. Do you mean people impersonating others to make use of their health insurance?
By theft I mean that someone keeps coming in for services but just doesn't pay their bills. You'd think it would be illegal but prosecutors routinely ignore this kind of thing. That's why it's become "big business" to take & not pay.
As a physician, it is against the law (& unethical, & against the Hippocratic Oath we all took upon graduation) to refuse to care for someone, regardless of your reasoning. If that happens, not only will prosecutors go after you, it'll make MSN.com headlines. After all, a doctor is a more lucrative target.
Believe it or not, I'm in favor of some form of National Healthcare. Everybody, & I mean everybody, must kick in. Those who live through gov't sustenance should have a portion of that monthly allottment taken out as representative of their responsibility to be good citizens. This is one of the areas that Obama-care refuses to acknowledge, let alone address.
I, too, miss Uncle Floyd.
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Is this patients who have health insurance, but after the insurance company has paid their portion (or not because the deductible isn't yet satisfied), the patient doesn't pay the copay or the balance due? In that case, yeah, there definitely should be some way to make them pay what they owe. If it's people without insurance, I'm pretty sure I've been in doctors' offices that require payment at the time of treatment. Unless that was only dentists - do dentists take the Hippocratic Oath?
Kerry is a hell of a musician. But his true calling is standup comedy.....
I'm talking about patients with no insurance. Nothing. Zip. There's a promise of payment, or "I just signed up for Insurance X" or "There's some screw up with my insurance", but once they're out the door they're gone.
I cannot file this as a business loss on my taxes. It's just as if I gave the money (i.e.: my time, the time of the staff, & office supplies) away.
Don't feel too sorry for me. It's a whole new universe of worse in Emergency Departments across the country. It's the back-door reason why there's such a push for uniform healthcare. The people who are picking up the tab are sick & tired of picking up the tab. Unfortunately, the gov't is using a sure-fail formula.
I don't know if dentists take an oath.
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Wow, sorry to hear that. It's definitely a sucky system. Hopefully it will improve. I just started new healthcare insurance this week, as I have a new job, and I was so careful to make sure I understood how it all worked!
Yeah, but 100K in one day??
He got his teeth pulled out and replaced by a solid gold crown??
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
It wasn't one day. He was in for 4 days & it included cardiac telemetry. But, if you trust the established media outlets you are guaranteed to get incorrect information. Accuracy is the first casualty of today's media standard of expediency.
I've got a bike you can ride it if you like
Accuracy has always been a casualty in news reporting, it's nothing new. Reporters and news outlets have always been in such a damn hurry to scoop each other and be the first to report whatever it is they're reporting, they rarely stop long enough to fact check.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks