American Healthcare

Watch the stream here:

#Shorts #America #Healthcare

[soup]

"you owe 100k"
"18k and i dont tell the IRS"
"deal"

[Themacattack]

A friend once told me “If something doesn’t make sense, it’s because someone is profiting off of it”.

[LordFlashheart]

The interesting thing is that the actual cost of it was probably 18k. Fasciating listening to ex-insurance people talk about all the number fudging they do.

[LongPeter]

I’ve heard stories like, “That X-ray will be $15, 000. Oh you don’t have insurance? Sorry, that’ll be $130. Cash or card?”.

[thejake]

Every time someone tries to explain american hospital bills, it just sounds like insurance fraud everytime

[kkxtype]

-You owe us 94k
-NUH UH
-Understandable, have a nice day.

[jonathanellis]

Said “that’s how insurance works”

Heard: “legal tax evasion is why hospitals charge this much.”

[Evan-jysd]

I work at a small retail pharmacy, we also get screwed over by this because when we charge a reasonable price, the insurance pays pennies, and maybe there are tax benefits but realistically most of the time we just lose money, we only stay afloat because all the cheap prescriptions we just don't run under insurance and charge you more... most of the time your insurance literally makes you pay more than you would without it. Insurance in America is the bigger problem, we desperately need reform.

[randomautisticperson]

hospital: you owe me 100k
insurance companie: nuh uh

[willwhite]

His voice is like if Howard Stern and Markiplier had a baby

[TheRythimMan]

Hi. I work in healthcare and I have to say this slightly misrepresents what's happening. It's WAY more complicated than that. The hospital still pays taxes, they just pay taxes on the $18K that was paid, not the $100K that was charged. That's normal for all businesses with operating expenses, if you charge $100K for something but only collect or profit $1K, then it totally makes more sense to pay taxes on the money you profit, not the amount you charge. If the hospital didn't write that off they'd have to pay ~30K in taxes for a procedure they only made ~18K for performing (in truth they probably made much less than 18K when you account for the wages, facilities, utilities, and medical supplies). The tax write off isn't a way for hospitals to avoid taxes, it's a way for them to only pay taxes on their net profit.

Also, there is a reason why the hospital charges so much. Insurances started out as a company that negotiated rates for patients. It's a deal between the doctor, insurance company, and the patient stating (in oversimplified terms) the insurance company will provide patients (via their directory and patients calling their insurance to know where they're covered) and in return for the extra patients the doctor will provide a discount (hence the 100K bill but only getting paid 18K by insurance). The issue is that jobs started offering insurance benefits as a way to not have to pay employees more (because they could make that a tax write-off as oppose to paying payroll taxes, something that benefits both the company and the employee) making insured patients more and more common, reaching the point that now almost every patient is insured by either their employer or the government. Offering a discount to a few privilege patients was good for business but offering it to EVERYONE was unsustainable. And hospitals couldn't just not accept insurance because now everyone had it and they'd all go somewhere that took their insurance if they didn't accept insurance. So a game emerged. Doctors and hospitals inflated prices so that after the discount they got paid what the procedure was worth. Insurance companies realized this and put steeper discounts on services and were more strict about what conditions and services they would and would not cover. Doctors realized this and inflated their prices even more and searched for ways to tack on more diagnosis so the patient would be "sick" enough to meet the insurance's requirements for paying the doctor. The cycle continued until it's reached the point where hospitals now charge over 10x more than they need so that they will get enough after the insurance company makes an adjustment, and insurance companies require extra "proof" from doctors before covering life-saving medications and surgeries (and sometimes still denies them). The average patient caught in the middle of this game.

Now the average patient is blissfully unaware of this game. They think their insurance company actually saved them $99K on this $100K surgery. But in reality the surgery only cost $15K, the doctor had to charge $100K, so that by time the insurance company discounts it by 80% they still have money left over. And there is a decent chance the insurance company denied the surgery the first time it was submitted for authorization, and the doctor had to waste time with more pointless exams and tests, or wait until the patient's condition got worse, in order to fish for more diagnosis to convince the insurance to finally cover it. That's why if you pay close attention you'll notice the hospital bill for someone without insurance is a lot less. Because they don't have to do this song and dance with private pay patients. They just charge them what the procedure is worth. It's only outrageously expensive for patients that have insurance companies because those patients have a third party involved that's looking out for their best interests (not necessarily the patient's).

Long story short, this isn't some scheme for hospitals to avoid paying taxes. In fact, when you take into account denied claims and the administrative costs of having to hire tons of billers to resubmit claims just to get 20% of the charged amount, a lot of hospitals operate at a loss. So while it's true that healthcare is a lucrative business, it's not lucrative for hospitals, it's lucrative for insurance companies. Hospitals are just playing along with the game because at this point they don't really have any other choice.

[dustinbaconflipper]

Hospital billing be like: The registration lady couldn’t pick up our Taco Bell order because of your visit, that’ll be an additional $2, 460.89

[jopro]

Ah yes, the evil final boss of America: The Healthcare

[potatocasseroli]

i was told i might have to pay 20k for my tonsillectomy. i was like “so i’m just gonna forget this is a thing until i get the accurate copay amount” and the accurate copay amount was under $100 lol.

[umphreak]

it's basically a contest of "how many grifts can we smush into 1 transaction" and the prize is you (hopefully) don't die before it gets figured out

[coltith]

Hospital : "Pay us 100k now"
Insurance : "lmao eat dirt"
Hospital : "Damn didn't see that coming. OK bye"

[Actve]

I unironically thought I was looking at a videogame for the first few seconds

[dumbcarclips]

Before my dad passed, he was life flighted to the hospital. They sent us a 50k bill after he died. My mom said “nah” and that was the end of that.

[Markc]

Butters - "We're navigating the American Healthcare system, fellas!"

[BeforeThisNovember]

You paid $130

Actual cost of the medication: $7