Hospitals are unbelievably corrupt and it’s truly despicable.
The worst bit is that this is often learned during trying times in ones life, when stress makes it easier to overlook.
The worst bit is that this is often learned during trying times in ones life, when stress makes it easier to overlook.
I asked them if the insurance price was the price billed to the insurance company or the negotiated price that actually gets paid. They could not give me a straight answer. I had them stay on the line while I added my insurance company to the call. The agent at the hospital communicated the necessary information to the insurance company (there's a ton of stuff that effects the price, down to which radiologist happens to be scheduled that day). And of course, the negotiated price for the insurance company was lower than the cash price the hospital was offering.
I really don't think this attempt at getting me to pay the cash price was some accidental mix up. I think someone at the business side has figured out not only can they convince people to pay a higher rate, but that then they don't need to deal with billing the insurance. A double savings. I wonder what percentage of people they successfully scam with these calls.
To anyone outside the US reading this who is really confused, I'll see if I can start a GoFundMe to explain the US healthcare system to foreigners
The exact statement you described is used: "Oh you won't hit your deductible yet so pay this lower cash price" and you are spot-on that it's a sly way for the facility to get more for the procedure by hoping the patient doesn't understand negotiated billing. And it works... almost every time I've seen it offered it's accepted.
Not to even mention the secondary effect that this causes the patient to not make progress towards burning their deductible so if they have more medical events that year they'll basically pay that amount AGAIN.
Since this conversation occurred within the "COBRA dead interval", there was no feasible way to ask the soon-to-be-restored insurance provider how much they would be able to discount and/or adjust the $3700 price of this same procedure downward... based on past history, I'm not confident that an insurance company would pre-commit to a set of discounts and/or adjustments for a procedure price (i.e. the final price we'd be required to pay out of pocket if below our deductible) prior to a (post-service-delivery) claim being filed and processed. Catch-22? Or "we can't know what's in the [legislation] until we pass it"?
edit: add [1] the "self-pay" amount would constitute payment in full.