OT: Doctors Offer Thoughts on Cutting Health Care Costs

[Guest guest]

Howdy y'all,

Below is an interesting article. Especially since the Bill does not really

address Cutting Medical Costs except for costs to the government .. and that

will be dealt with by a form of rationing .. whether intentional or not.

 

From 1995 till I returned to the U.S.A. in 2007, I took no over the counter

or prescriptions medications and was healthy except for arthritis. I had

not seen a doctor but once during that period .. for a physical. Since

returning to the U.S.A. and becoming eligible for Medicare and my

retired military supplement, Tricare for Life .. I have seen doctors for

regular physicals and arthritis and non malignant skin cancers .. I go when

I want to go now.

 

Especially significant to me is the portion below on over treating .. and

turning everyday problems into new diseases. Some might not know it but

Sleep Apnea is one of those everyday problems that has evolved into a

lucrative industry. Granted, Sleep Apnea is a real problem for some folks

... but for the majority it is a problem only in that the medics have deemed

it to be so. For others .. the problem could maybe be dealt with by losing

a bit of weight.

 

I had this problem .. went through their sleep clinic .. was evaluated and

according to that evaluation I was in big trouble. Went through the second

round of the sleep clinic using their facial device .. it did not work for

me .. I couldn't sleep and got into a panic mode. They told me the type of

Sleep Apnea I had couldn't be treated with the device .. and arranged an

appointment with a Sleep Disorder Clinic 100 miles away .. in Nashville.

 

Problem was .. after doing a bit of on line research I saw that if the

device does not work then an operation does work .. and I figured that was

what they would want to do. In addition to that, deer season was starting

soon and I didn't want to go to Nashville anyway .. too much traffic. A

traffic jam here in Paris is 3 cars waiting for a light to change. I like

that. I had already begun to work out to get ready for deer season and by

the time that two month hunting season was over I had lost 15 pounds .. off

my butt and in the woods I was most of the time. No more

Sleep Apnea. That was the Fall-Winter of 2007 and still no more Sleep

Apnea. Since then I have heard insinuations from medical folks that our

independent Sleep Clinic here is trying to create an industry to justify its

presence in the hospital. After further self evaluation I concluded that

the stress of moving from Turkey and beginning life anew in Tennessee plus

being a tad over my fighting weight was the everyday problem .. one that the

technicians and their machines tried to turn into a medical problem and a

lucrative venture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/health/27patient.html?8au & emc=au

Y'all keep smiling. :-)

 

Butch ... http://www.AV-AT.com <http://www.av-at.com/>

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Negotiated rates vs your on your own

 

When a doctor or lab bills me, they provide the rate they want to receive. Then

it goes to the insurance, in my case BC/BS and suddenly the bill is much smaller

if they are in network - they have agreed to a substantially lower

reimbursement.

 

Great example was my husband had rotator cuff surgery, nasty as that is. The

bill from the surgeon was about 10K for 2 hours of work. But after the insurance

submission it was $3K and my share was around $600 (this was about 10 years

ago). So if I didn't have insurance, I would have to pay 10K unless I could

independently negotiate with the surgeon, with insurance he " accepted " $3k.

wonder if I could have negotiated it down that much?

 

Now on labs I see the same deal, They bill $600 for a blood test and then after

insurance processing is done the amount is now $73 and I have to pay my 40%.

 

Maybe we could all just have a national agreement for these lower rates, eh?

 

Jackie