These Towns Trusted a Doctor to Set Up Covid Testing. Sample Patient Fee: $1,944.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Rebecca Sussman got a coronavirus test because town officials in Bedford, N.Y., encouraged her to.

“If you haven’t gotten your test yet, please do so for yourself, your family and our community,” Chris Burdick, the town supervisor, said in an email. More tests would mean a lower positivity rate, he said, and a faster path to reopening. He directed residents to the town’s new testing site, situated on an empty parking lot at the train station.

Ms. Sussman, 51, took her whole family to get tested, and the results came back negative.

Then the paperwork came: $6,816 had been charged to insurance for four coronavirus tests. Ms. Sussman’s fees alone were $1,944.

She started looking through the itemized costs. One insurance claim showed that she had been tested for a dozen respiratory diseases. She found that odd; the town emails advertised only a coronavirus test. There was also a surprise $480 charge for a short phone call relaying her results.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/these-towns-trusted-a-doctor-to-set-up-covid-testing-sample-patient-fee-dollar1944/ar-BB1aSlpG?li=BBnb7Kz

[iemitsu]

1. Everything is a scam in America.

[Nevilledog]

2. [phone]

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. That is THEFT, plain and simple

The fact that the town supervisor told people to go to this particular faculty makes me think he got kickbacks.

[Hoyt]

4. Most insurers aren't going to pay for those tests, and when denied, the doc

isn’t allowed to charge the patient in most cases. Plus, they need to report him to the state Medical Board.

If the patient had respiratory symptoms, the doc might get paid for a few tests directly related to symptoms. But most screening tests are covered.

Murphy is going to get a visit from the Office of Inspector General too.

Here’s a quote from another article on this grifter:

He also said that he recently conducted an analysis of tests he has done in New Haven so far, and found that he’s been reimbursed for only around 10 percent of what he’s billed.

“Connecticare has not paid for a single claim at all,” he said. He said he has seen 589 uninsured patients in New Haven, for which he receives no money, per his agreement with the city. He said the Yale Health Plan has not paid his group anything yet, even though it has been billed 748 tests for its insured members.

Anthem requires Murphy’s company to snail mail tests results to California so that they can review before providing reimbursements, he said. And he said Cigna hasn’t paid them at all for three months.

“All in all, just those insurers and uninsured is approximately half of all testing has been paid for by Murphy Medical Associates with the hope insurers don’t break the social contract and will pay us,” he said. “We refuse to break our social contract as healers and physicians.”

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/murphy_medical_testing/

[Grokenstein]

5. Grifters are everywhere.

And this is why so many people do not trust medical science at all. They've been burned by doctors.

When I switched my dental coverage a few years ago, I selected a dentist right down the block. Nice place, convenient, everybody's all smiles. Coverage included twice-annual checkups at no additional cost to me. Get the postcard reminder in the mail to get my second checkup, make the appointment, go in. "Oh your insurance doesn't cover the second checkup. Will you be paying cash? We don't hand out receipts." Holy shit. Once I picked up my jaw and snapped it back into place, I turned on my heel and left.

My HMO? Went in for a gout flare-up. Doc didn't want to hear about it; she was too busy pushing their partnership with Jenny Craig in my face. (Jenny Craig advertises that their factory-produced, one-solution-fits-all approach has "GUARANTEED RESULTS*" on late-night teevee, complete with the asterisk leading to fine print that complete negates said "guarantee." I know this drill by heart: When their sure-fire solution doesn't work, the grifter blames the victim for "not trying hard enough." ) I refused to join up and Doc, visibly angry at the loss of a commission, quickly wrapped up the session and told me to take (more) Tylenol for the gout. Flicked a gout-diet handout at me that recommended crackers, cookies and cake "in moderation" while declaring pretty much anything that wasn't sugar and paste to be a trigger. The last thing I said to her: "You want me to treat my gout by giving myself diabetes? Quack."

I've had good doctors and dentists. (Hell, I've even had decent docs at the HMO before and after the aforementioned quack.) But people who have been burned multiple times by the quacks and grifters are bound to have their outlook colored by these "bad apples."

[area51]

6. We need healthcare as a basic right,

and an end to these insane prices. These doctors have a plan.