I'm not sure which part of this is the most depressing. This doesn't include what I paid in insurance premiums or all of the out of network stuff that are still pending and/or I haven't submitted claims for yet.
Like many things in medicine, #healthinsurance makes it more expensive, not less.
We can dispense generic for members of our #directprimarycare#familymedicine practice for about $14 and up for 30 tabs but Mark Cuban's #costplus pharmacy has it for even less (no relationship with them):
"Before we discuss raising taxes on the poor & middle class, adding $1 trillion to the deficit, taking health insurance away from 13 million, raising premiums by 10%, defending treason and swearing in a pedophile, let's begin with a prayer."
~Jack Ziegler, TNY
Just read about this. I used a short term health insurance plan last year between jobs because the cheapest and pretty crappy ACA plan was $620/month with a $9000 deductible which wouldn't be any better than a much cheaper crap short term plan. I can understand wanting to protect consumers, but the price of the ACA needs to be actually affordable for people who don't qualify for a subsidy. I hate the American health care/insurance industry. #HealthInsurance#ACAhttps://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/biden-announcing-new-rule-protect-consumers-purchase-short-108598170
Just FYI, when #insurance companies don't let you submit correspondence to them electronically through their web site, it's not because they're concerned about privacy. It's because they want to make it as hard as possible for you to create a paper trail of your interactions with them to minimize evidence of their wrongdoing. #HealthInsurance#DentalInsurance
I just got off the phone with #UnitedHealthcare; there was no option to contact them online.
I called to tell them they made a several-hundred-dollars error processing a claim. I could have filed a "dispute" by postal mail instead of calling them on the phone, but (a) a dispute would have been overkill for a processing error, (b) it would have been much more troublesome, and (c) it would have added at least a week to the process. #Insurance#HealthInsurance#DentalInsurance
AI was fucking things up long before the current hype cycle.
Today's example: "UnitedHealth uses AI model with 90% error rate to deny care, lawsuit alleges." (AKA "Our lawyers say it's not a bug, it's a feature!")
When anyone criticizes the US healthcare system, they always go after insurance companies. I'm not a fan of insurance companies, but they sometimes get too much of the blame because they're not always in control. Often, the hospital systems are also complicit or in some places, they're actually calling the shots.
The US healthcare system has some serious structural issues and paradoxically as it stands right now, everyone who's part of the problem is also part of the solution. In an ideal world, it'd be great to have a single payer system in the US, but the power dynamics are more complex than most people realize. Banishing insurance companies tomorrow might not produce the results people think it would.
It's not just a simple case of insurance = greed and hospitals = victims and I'm saying this as a former healthcare professional.
anyone super knowledgeable about #HealthInsurance policy in the #US? i'm just trying to find out if a medical provider can refuse service, even though they're in-network with my plan, because the benefits are administered via a third-party provider or #TPA. enshittification has made all of my search results useless, and i haven't got time to spend digging through the aforementioned shit before i get my #diabetes supplies ordered.
Today I watched two people get turned away from the #UrgentCare clinic I go to. They both were told very loudly (I'm on the opposite side of the room) that their #healthinsurance wouldn't cover them and they would need to pay out of pocket. Both walked out of the clinic with no care.
This is disgusting, incredibly immoral and absolutely unacceptable. The horrors of the #americanhealthcaresystem are real when people are refused care for lack of money. People need to live.
Lately the Canadian media has been rehashing the incident last year in Parliament when Zelensky was here, but I see absolutely no mention of this...
Three Conservative MPs who met with far-right German politician will stay in caucus
Anderson , a member of European Parliament ..... which has been under surveillance as a suspected extremist group in Germany and is accused of downplaying Nazi crimes, opposing immigration and pushing anti-Muslim ideology.
This is "the big one," @STAT's Bob Herman tells us.
An employee is suing J&J for overpaying for its employees' prescriptions—to the tune of $10,000 for a $30 drug—and taking the excess out of paychecks.
A STAT investigation found that consultants & PBMs are in cahoots (and not in a good way), meaning J&J's consultant & PBM might get pulled into the lawsuit, opening the door for an industry-wide precedent.
Our insurance provider, Blue Cross, terminated its contract with a large health care provider here in Arizona. That means that we can no longer go to the hospital that is less than 2 miles from our house. We now have to travel more than 7 miles to arrive at an emergency room our insurance will accept.
Now I have to figure out which doctors we can still see.
It's 2024 and the answer to "how can I find out how much this medical procedure will cost me" in the US is still, "it's your responsibility to get the billing codes while in the doctor's office but before treatment is rendered and then call your insurance to get an estimated charge and then call the medical facility's billing department to see what their cash price is and then decide if you want insurance billed or pay the discounted cash rate that won't factor into your deductible."
"A less-followed risk is adding to unease at companies offering life and health insurance: scientists’ warnings, and research findings, that a warming climate is causing an increasing number of excess deaths, and forcing more people into ill-health."