$82, 000 LapBand Bill

[nursekathy2u 0]

OMG....yeah he's totally trying to rip off your insurance...and even with 2 days at a hospital that does not add up 80,000 + dollars.....Example- my son who was born 2 months premature lived in NICU for 1 MONTH! his statement of charges was 89,000 dollars....thats understandable....a lap band,slight bleeding,2 days in a hospital....I think not.

I have to say the more I deal with doctors the more I have a complete distain for them....dishonest,unethical,Greedy arrogant and the biggest BS'ERS:cursing: The whole lot of them should be taught a lesson...I take nothing a doctor tells me a face value....I defy any doctor to look his nose down on me and expect to roll over and take it as though they were the end all and be all of opinons.

:embaressed_smile:OOPS...didn't mean to go on a rant:embaressed_smile: I would defintly report it what are they gonna do take away your BAND??:thumbup:

Oh come on! Not all doctors are "dishonest, unethical, greedy, arrogant, and the biggest BS'ERS" I have been a nurse for 25 years and I can tell you I have dealt with VERY FEW dishonest or unethical doctors. Arrogant and full of BS I can agree with on more than half of them. But honestly.. most doctors I have worked with are great people, mainly family men, and they all worked too hard for their medical licenses to jepordize them by trying to make an extra buck or cheat the system. As far as "greedy" goes.. Do you know what the average "take home pay" for a general practioner in America is today? This is after they pay all their over head.. I recently read that is is $86,000!!! ( this is the average between general practioners all across the US from New York City to small town in Alabama.) Now.. Divide that by their hourly work and they don't make much. I once worked for an Internal Medicine doctor.. Here is an example of his daily schedule. At the hospital by 600am to round on his patients that are there, to the office and see patients from 8-5. Review patient charts, lab results, return calls from 5-7 pm. Go to hospital on lunch break for a comittee meeting, Go back to the hospital after work to discharge patients. Home by 900PM and but "on-call" all night and answer patient phone calls, calls form hospital etc. then do it again the next day.. I don't know why the heck they do it. They could surely make more money doing something else. Must suck to work 24 hours a day for your patients and then run into ungrateful people with crappy attitudes who don't trust a thing you say and think your arrogant, greedy, dishonest, unethical and full of BS and have complete distain for you.

By the way.. the original poster said it was a bill from the HOSPITAL not the DOCTOR. so the doctor is NOT trying to rip her off. Even though the hospital billed that much they will only get payed their contracted rate that the hospital and the insurance company agreed upon when the hospital became a contracted provider.

Edited December 25, 2008 by nursekathy2u
typos

[mich85013 0]

Yes, I agree with NurseKathy.

If someone is so negative about doctors then perhaps they can take care of themselves and do their own surgery. No one forced you to see the doctor. I for one don't seek out services of people I don't trust. The doctors have better things to do with their time and other people to take care of who actually need and appreciate their services then someone with that kind of attitude!

I wish you health and happiness!

Michelle

[mnn2501 0]

My wife was in ICU for 3 days (dka, nothing to do with lapband) that was over $500,000. Hospitals bill as much as they can as they only get a small percentage from insurance.

Sort of like a hotel posting that a room's maximum charge is $249 a night (on the card on the inside of the room) when you only paid $69. When FEMA puts hurrican vicums in the room you can believe they bill the max as they only get a percentage of it

[JennBand08 0]

A couple weeks after my surgery I got a statement from my insurance telling me I was responsible for $9,800.. for a co-surgeon that I had never heard of. I about fainted. I called them and asked what happened, because I had been told prior to surgery it was covered and had been precertified. She explained that the Co-Surgeon was not in my plan so it was MY responsibility. I said.. "but I didn't CHOOSE her, I don't even know her!" They documented that the Dr. was not selected by me and sent it to 'review'. They then paid it all.. whew!! I haven't seen the total bill yet, I'm sure it's a high amount if the co-surgeon billed for $10,000!

[AudsMom 2]

Hello,

Ok i am a part of Kaiser, it is a HMO i believe, where the drs and nurses, staff, hospital etc are all employed via the same company.. So I pay kaiser and they pay their employees... WELL even they charge astronomical..

I gave birth and because it was an emergency situation they first billed for time in the laboring room, then they billed for the pitocen etc, and then the thing that attached to my babies head to monitor her and so on. Then i got my epidural, and they messed up so there were 2 charges there. Then it was an emergency C-section so they charged there. Then they knocked me out so charged over 1k for the (put mom to sleep drug) then they charged for my extended time in recovery, then it just got worse.. I ended up with a private room for one day so got the charge on that and since i had a infection i got a special pass to stay 7 days..$$$ then, they had me on 3 antibiotics 2x a day via IV so more $$$$, then i had to use a lactation lady $$ and also a psych lady because after being in a small room with 3 other women, and babies, and visitors and feelin like ass i kinda went crazy lol so more $$$ Needless to say they sent us the paper that says this is not a bill: it was over 180k..

Needless to say my copay was ZERO! VSP (vision service plan) has a SPECTACULAR Employee program, and they paid the copays whatever they were.

So the point is, i think hospitals like to bill as much as they can even though they know they wont get that much, also since it will be a neg, they could get a tax right off..........

[taylorgirl1 1]

My co pay just for the hospital room and nurses etc that I had to pay up front before admission was $275 the co pay is 10% thats just for the room, not for md, surgery, iv's meds pre surgery anything like that. So total cost of stay in room from 6pm -10am normally is almost $3000. It adds up what the hospital bills. This was all in a BC Anthem Bariatric Center of Excellence with approved md's etc