But I guess what you're suggesting is that there should be no billing the patient -- they just collect your balance at the time of the visit.
Yes, no billing is more efficient. Hence my comparison to Safeway.
most won't do it because you cannot adequately predict what the payment will be for a given procedure.
Exactly!
this is no different from any other monthly bill you get -- telephones, utilities, etc.
Its at least twice as bad, because both the insurance and the Doc send me bills. You seem to be implying the typical situation is different from what I see. Is this the case? I'd complain less if I saw a single final bill from one source. But that is not what I see. In fact, digging out the records from the last visit I see the following:
1) Invoice from Doc mailed to me (a week or so after the visit). Notes that this is not a bill, but a record of the service and charges which have been submitted to my insurance.
2) Invoice from the insurance showing how they applied my "club discount" to wack the Doc's bill, how much they paid (none) of that wacked price, and what fraction I owed the Doc (all remaining).
3) Invoice from the Doc asking for the what I owed after the insurance wacked him.
4) A separate bill showed up from a lab which had done analysis. This bill was not reflected in 1) above, but had been noted in 2) and my "club discount" applied as well.
I then mailed two separate checks, one to the Doc, one to the lab.
Total cost was $93. Total time from service to final bills was over 2 months. My club discount wacked the price almost in half for this example. Which is why I don't dare pay at the desk what the Doc askes as I walk out the door.
I should note that the telephone, utility, auto repair, etc, don't discriminate against me by a factor of 2 if I offer to pay cash at the time of service.
What a screwed up system! |
