I've previously discussed the health insurance billing game in newsletter 017. I encourage you to read that newsletter if you haven't already. I am revisiting that topic because I switched health insurance companies and want to show how medical billing shenanigans cause some people to lose doctors and why you must advocate for yourself.
A frightening good substack. I remember when I first came to Medicare, I saw all those high "original" (left column on bills) charges. There was a woman who did a column on Medicare and related in the Beaches Leader. I contacted her and she gave me the same lesson you did, tho in broader terms. It is a game. My favorite primary left UF Health Primary for Mayo Primary, and across the board that primary takes no Medicare patients, even tho have top-notch supplement insurance. And, if I ever had to go to the Mayo Clinic in JAX, the auto uncharge for Medcare is 15% t 40%. ()I don't believe even my supplement would cover the upcharge.) I will have to wtch for the ad you mention. But even as a kid, I remember: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what relief it is" (Alka-Seltzer). In teaching a science communication course, I had the students design and carry out an experiment on "Tums absorbs seven times its weight in excess stomach acid." (No one got close to that answer.) And I too have used Precision. Carry on, brave one.
Dear Keith,
A frightening good substack. I remember when I first came to Medicare, I saw all those high "original" (left column on bills) charges. There was a woman who did a column on Medicare and related in the Beaches Leader. I contacted her and she gave me the same lesson you did, tho in broader terms. It is a game. My favorite primary left UF Health Primary for Mayo Primary, and across the board that primary takes no Medicare patients, even tho have top-notch supplement insurance. And, if I ever had to go to the Mayo Clinic in JAX, the auto uncharge for Medcare is 15% t 40%. ()I don't believe even my supplement would cover the upcharge.) I will have to wtch for the ad you mention. But even as a kid, I remember: "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what relief it is" (Alka-Seltzer). In teaching a science communication course, I had the students design and carry out an experiment on "Tums absorbs seven times its weight in excess stomach acid." (No one got close to that answer.) And I too have used Precision. Carry on, brave one.