Health Care Costs
I have Medicare with Anthem supplemental, so I don't look at statements because once I pay my deductible it's all covered.
Every once in a while I take a look. For example, I wanted to see how much was billed for my surgery earlier this year and be grateful that I wasn't out of pocket.
And sometimes you see stuff that is just too weird.
As gross as this might be, I had to have wax removed from my ears so that my audiology test would be more useful. (Yes, I probably could have gotten something in the pharmacy and do it myself, but the audiologist thought it would be best, as least for the test, that it be done at the clinic.
The hospital billing for this service showed two entries for surgery, one for medical service, and one for office visit, for a total of $902. Medicare paid the hospital $179.25, with Anthem picking up $43.16. I paid nothing.
This is insane. With different insurance or without insurance perhaps someone would pay $902, but certainly not without a fight. I'm sure this is not the most ridiculous example of a fucked up medical system, but it's a pretty good example.
