I Went To The Accts Payable Dept Of The Hospital Yesterday To Pay My Mom's Bill's And Found This....

[BlueStreak]

52. Everybody just sends out paper everywhere to see what will stick

The uncollectibles must be huge, but they are also probably over-billing by a wide margin. The system is unbelievable.

I just had a colonoscopy last week. The doc was great. The hospital staff were great, for people who were spending the day shoving things up my backside. No complaints about the quality of services.

(Which reminds me of a joke. Man is visiting his proctologist for a regular checkup. The doc has him drop his drawers. "This my feel a little uncomfortable, says the doc. The patient replies, "Yeah, Doc. Your wedding ring is really irritating me." The Doc says, "Oh I'm not married. That's my wristwatch. " But I digress.)

No complaints about the care. But the records make me feel like I'm in a third world country. A couple of days before the procedure I had to take a bunch of blood tests. But these are EXACTLY the same tests my GP had done just a few weeks before. These guys ought to be able to share records. Those tests were totally unnecessary. And likewise, I ended up dictating my complete medical history to three different people in the process. Again, in a world that can have a Facebook and a Google, it shouldn't be a huge challenge to have a database of medical records.

Why don't we have that? Because people are terrified about privacy.

And why are people terrified about privacy? Because of the goddamned private insurance system. It is as simple as that. If we had a universal health care system, most of us would not be all that obsessed about privacy of records.

Next up, receiving all the bills for this. Theoretically a screening colonoscopy must be covered by the insurance. But they have claimed a huge loophole. If the screening reveals ANYTHING that needs more than just a look through the scope, the insurance companies claim it is no longer a "screening" exam and therefore they don't have to cover it. That is, I have to pay the first $10,000 because that is my deductible. Almost every scope job is going to have SOME follow-up. I have a couple of tissue samples biopsied. Thankfully they were negative, but that is probably enough to push the full cost over on me. We shall see. I know I ate a $25 muffin.