09-08-2009, 01:17 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: cleveland,
OH
Cobra Make, Engine: CSX4000, 427
Posts: 1,999
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan40
--To give you a better idea, my wife had 2 torso XRays per day for 18 days. The total was in the thousands. After Medicares adjustment, out share of the XRay charges,,,,,,,,,,$9.80. That's NINE DOLLARS AND EIGHTY CENTS.
That is why I say Medicare is terrific, but it could not exist without the support of the , in place, for profit, health care system we now have. Reduce the reimbursement rates of a "public option" to what Medicare pays and the hospital would become a condo and the Doctors would have realtors licenses to sell the condos.
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What you have stated in the beginning of the post is basically correct, but what I have highlighted in the 2nd part of the post is for the most part incorrect. In todays medical business enviroment, practically all medical providers (hospitals and doctors have agreements not only with medicare, but with the vast majority of health insurance companies, such that almost every service provided is under some type of contract to reduce the reimbursement to the medical provider. This is called "in network". If you see a physician "out of network", then yes, legally, the patient is responsible for the rest of the money that was chrged by the provider and not payed by the insurance, but in todays enviroment, most people "stay in network", meaning that their medical costs are significantly discounted, like Medicare, and in fact, most insuranc companies use Medicare rates as a guideline for the rates they pay in their contracts, so for the vast majority fo the time, medical providers are basically being payed "medicare" rates, no matter from medicare itself or from participating insurance companies. The US medical system has basically adjusted all rates to about medicare levels, even for insurance companies, which is why hospitals are closing, doctors are retiring earlier, etc. Contrary to what the politicians may have you think, there is not much "fat" in the system to cut out from the medical providers (doctors and hospitals).
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