Quote:
Originally Posted by Robbie
The way it was explained to me by the company that owned the hospital I was in (and negotiated my bill) The insurance companies and the corporations that own the hospitals are hand-in-hand on the whole thing.
It's the medical equivalent of "hidden pre-checked x-sales" lol
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Basically yes. I was just in the hospital about 3 weeks ago. I stayed 3 nights. The bill is around $18K. My shitty insurance may or may not pay for it, we are still waiting to see about that. The hospital finance department basically has told me if the insurance doesn't pay they can hook me up with a policy that will allow me full insurance coverage, but I have to go to their facilities. So basically they are becoming their own insurance company.
when it comes to drugs and insurance the insurance company sets a maximum that they will pay for a particular drug. the pharmacy then charges that max, plus any co-pay. If you have a $10 co pay and the insurance max is $100 the pharmacy charges $110 for it. However, if you walk in and want to pay cash there is no limit on what they can charge. They can charge you $220 cash for the same medicine. If you call different pharmacies asking for prices on medicine often times they will ask you if you want the "cash price" which means they likely charge a different amount for cash customers.