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One of my family members got tested. They billed $275 and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan we have knocked it down to $89. These clowns can bill what they want, but the insurance companies know a lot about the actual costs, and compensate accordingly. These must be some real idiots trying to get past that.
“Free is Socialism”
DJT and Republican Platform.
Except for the part where nationalized medicine is paid for in higher taxes, so it’s not free for your or me. What Donnie and the other Republicans can’t stand is that by nationalizing they can’t profit off of other people’s pain.
How much for the COVID-45 test?
Priceless…
The medical bill gets worse if you are uninsured and gets hospitalized…
AND
Watch the video of Project Lincoln’s response to Covidiot Trump…
Please tell me that those rising number of Covid cases are all insured!
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1290266666484428801
I really liked (not) the billing company’s response, which was essentially “we’ll charge you whatever we want and put random false information in your medical record, and if you don’t force us to fix it, it’s your fault.”
But nutbars seldom go after billing companies.
A friend of mine here in Texas experienced exactly the same thing. She posted a copy of the massive invoice.
Seems like we need to unleash the irrepressible Katie Porter again…
I did the math: a full battery of coronavirus testing costs at minimum $1,331.
I also did the legal research: the Administration has the authority to make testing free for every American TODAY.
I secured a commitment from a high-level Trump official that they’d actually do it. pic.twitter.com/RmolCtmNbG
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) March 12, 2020
The US healthcare system is largely welfare for middle-class white people.
I’ve been a part of this system since the early 90’s - I’ve watched as the system eliminates those performing actual patient care activities (nurses, lab techs, etc) while hiring more and more administrators. Standard practice for decades. Why does it take weeks to get a SARS-CoV2 result back? Because the system has spent 25+ years purging clinical laboratories of the expertise required to develop, execute, and validate high-complexity testing.
Bureaucratic bloat disguised as jobs for “hard-working Americans” - and while many will feign disgust over reports such as this, in the end if their 401(k) keeps climbing they look the other way. Present company included.
How would you not be able to make an argument that you agreed to something like this under duress? A contract signed under duress is void, and it would be easy enough to say you feared for your life and the life of others if you didn’t sign.
Texas has been plagued with these free-standing ER’s over the last decade or so. Their sole reason for existing is to charge insurers and patients “emergency room” prices for what is overwhelmingly routine medical care. Everyone associated with them is price-gouging scum, as is the state for letting them get away with their scam.
The affirmative defense of duress only applies if the plaintiff threatened something illegal or otherwise improper. It is not duress for the plaintiff to threaten something the plaintiff has a legal right to do, such as withholding services.
Is that true given this? https://www.texmed.org/template.aspx?id=1619
They performed the service, but are denying her access to the results until she agrees to pay an exorbitant fee.
That rule is addressed to a patient’s medical records. It’s unclear whether the lab report would be considered part of those records (or, indeed, whether she even has a patient file with this outfit). If that report is within the scope of her medical records, then there is a good argument that it must be disclosed. That would be independent of the affirmative defense of duress, however, because the contract was not entered into as the result of a threat to do something illegal.
My impression from the article was that they performed the test for a set fee, and then refused to disclose the results of the test without her signature on the blank check. If this were a normal consumer transaction, that could get them in hot water, but there may well be exceptions for them. (Texas is an outlier on medical costs in a bunch of ways, pretty much all involving the working of the “free market”.)
I think if an individual did have COVID, didn’t receive the information about their test result because the doctor demanded a blank check to do so, and then anyone else contracted the disease from that individual, the doctor would be open to malpractice suit, and possibly other criminal consequences (manslaughter) if it resulted in the deaths of others. It strikes me that it’s an unlawful threat to withhold vital and urgent information if the withholding of that information may result in harm to others.
A lab report about whether a patient has a certain disease or not is almost certainly part of a patient’s medical records, btw. I would be shocked if it somehow wasn’t. If it isn’t, what the hell is?
That’s not how tort law works. The doctor owes a legal duty of care to the patient, not to unknown third parties.
That’s under tort law, but doctors are also subject to laws regarding public health. (Albeit in texas I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one bringing sanctions)
In 2012 when I did not have health insurance I went in for a check up anyway. Doctor billed me $40. It was a freebie from him. But he asked for some blood tests. So I walked in to Summit Hospital and asked for them to draw some blood, which I took to a lab for testing. Lab bill was $168.
The bill to draw the blood was $1200. It took 60 seconds, was not an emergency, I was happy to make an appointment. None of that applied. They just threw the book at me. That cured me of ever using US healthcare services without insurance. I should just kill myself because the treatment would do that regardless. I got insured when the ACA kicked off, now I am on medicare.