Patients’ Costs Skyrocket; Specialists’ Incomes Soar

[jsr]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/health/patients-costs-skyrocket-specialists-incomes-soar.html

Patients’ Costs Skyrocket; Specialists’ Incomes Soar
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL | JAN. 18, 2014

CONWAY, Ark. — Kim Little had not thought much about the tiny white spot on the side of her cheek until a physician’s assistant at her dermatologist’s office warned that it might be cancerous. He took a biopsy, returning 15 minutes later to confirm the diagnosis and schedule her for an outpatient procedure at the Arkansas Skin Cancer Center in Little Rock, 30 miles away.

That was the prelude to a daylong medical odyssey several weeks later, through different private offices on the manicured campus at the Baptist Health Medical Center that involved a dermatologist, an anesthesiologist and an ophthalmologist who practices plastic surgery. It generated bills of more than $25,000.

“I felt like I was a hostage,” said Ms. Little, a professor of history at the University of Central Arkansas, who had been told beforehand that she would need just a couple of stitches. “I didn’t have any clue how much they were going to bill. I had no idea it would be so much.”

Ms. Little’s seemingly minor medical problem — she had the least dangerous form of skin cancer — racked up big bills because it involved three doctors from specialties that are among the highest compensated in medicine, and it was done on the grounds of a hospital. Many specialists have become particularly adept at the business of medicine by becoming more entrepreneurial, protecting their turf through aggressive lobbying by their medical societies, and most of all, increasing revenues by offering new procedures — or doing more of lucrative ones.

[msongs]

1. baptists are good at making $$ nt

[BrotherIvan]

2. Yes

And they'll order an astonishing array of tests as they try to guess what you've got. They also do a great job now of scaring the shit out of you that any small ailment might be cancerous or life-threatening so that you are so frightened, you do not question any of their recommendations. And you're guaranteed an entire fistful of prescriptions on your way out the door.

[Bozvotros]

3. It's caveat emptor all day long in the healthcare field

You have to know exactly who and where your insurance covers, what it does and doesn't cover, what is first dollar coverage, what is deductible, what percentage of which procedure is covered, what is on your formulary and what isn't. Your doctor might be covered but not your anesthesiologist. The procedure might be almost free in his office but if you are scheduled in an outpatient surgery facility it could be a couple of hundred or more. You also have to know how to review your bill for mistakes and double entries and how to appeal a wrongly issued denial of payment. It is a fucking disgrace is what it is.