Doctors, Hospitals Demanding Patients Pay Entire Deductible Up Front Thanks to Obamac

[Revmitchell]

The rocky rollout of Obamacare isn’t limited to website problems. According to a report from Bloomberg, many doctors and clinics are now demanding that people pay the entire deductible on their insurance before they will be seen. Obamacare will increase that practice, since a huge number of plans under Obamacare have low premiums with huge deductibles.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/10/15/Obamacare-deductible

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

From the Bloomberg piece ...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...fore-seeing-doctor-as-deductibles-spread.html​

When Barbara Retkowski went to a Cape Coral, Florida, health clinic in August to treat a blood condition, she figured the center would bill her insurance company. Instead, it demanded payment upfront.

Earlier in the year, another clinic insisted she pay her entire remaining insurance deductible for the year -- more than $1,000 -- before the doctor would even see her.

“I was surprised and frustrated,” Retkowski, a 59-year-old retiree, said in an interview. “I had to pull money out of my savings.”

Apparently it is becoming a quite common practice with the ACA looming on the horizon. Just in case you Great Pretender defenders had a thought about posting, "Oh I doubt that" comments.

 

[annsni]

Health clinics always do this, as far as I've seen. We have a high deductible insurance plan and when we go to our own doctor, he will bill the insurance company, wait for the insurance company to say "Our agreed amount on this $400 bill is $150. The $150 has been applied to the patient's deductible." Then the doctor will bill us the $150. But when we go to the clinic, we have to pay the full $400 bill and then when the insurance company says that it should be $150, the clinic - in theory - should pay us back the other $250. We've had that happen once and they did. I'm waiting to do this again when my son went there for his ear infection.

 

[thisnumbersdisconnected]

Health clinics always do this, as far as I've seen. We have a high deductible insurance plan and when we go to our own doctor, he will bill the insurance company, wait for the insurance company to say "Our agreed amount on this $400 bill is $150. The $150 has been applied to the patient's deductible." Then the doctor will bill us the $150. But when we go to the clinic, we have to pay the full $400 bill and then when the insurance company says that it should be $150, the clinic - in theory - should pay us back the other $250. We've had that happen once and they did. I'm waiting to do this again when my son went there for his ear infection.

I'm wondering if this isn't being done because the clinic is an out-of-plan provider. Typically such providers require you to pay the bill up front and then they submit the paperwork to your insurance company, which pays you the insured amount for out-of-plan services.

Just wondering. I really don't know if that's the case or not.

 

[annsni]

I'm wondering if this isn't being done because the clinic is an out-of-plan provider. Typically such providers require you to pay the bill up front and then they submit the paperwork to your insurance company, which pays you the insured amount for out-of-plan services.

Just wondering. I really don't know if that's the case or not.

They are in network but when you have the high deductible insurance, it's up to the patient to pay the bill. So that means if they don't get payment up front and I decide not to pay, it's tough for them to actually get payment.

When we went out of network for my daughter's illness and surgery (to the tune of about $175,000, if I remember correctly - all out of network too), they actually gave US the payments and then we sent them on to the provider. So the providers went ahead and billed then billed us when the paperwork came back to them about the cost (which, since it was out of network, the insurance company paid 100% of the bill!).

 

[Deacon]

When we went out of network for my daughter's illness and surgery (to the tune of about $175,000, if I remember correctly - all out of network too), they actually gave US the payments and then we sent them on to the provider. So the providers went ahead and billed then billed us when the paperwork came back to them about the cost (which, since it was out of network, the insurance company paid 100% of the bill!).

I've been stung by that trick many times.
This isn't due to ObamaCare- it's due to a screwed up insurance system.

A few months after a hospitalization we recieved an insurance company check for a thousand bucks and change, without explanation. WooHoo!!!
Much later, a pricey bill arrives from an 'out of network' physician.

We've found the best practice is to hold the check and sign it over to the physician's practice.

Last year our insurance company much later demanded we return a portion of the check that they claimed they overpaid - we sent them right over to the physican who we gave the check to and let them hammer out the problems.

No hassle for us... it's their problem

Rob

 

[annsni]

I've been stung by that trick many times.
This isn't due to ObamaCare- it's due to a screwed up insurance system.

A few months after a hospitalization we recieved an insurance company check for a thousand bucks and change, without explanation. WooHoo!!!
Much later, a pricey bill arrives from an 'out of network' physician.

We've found the best practice is to hold the check and sign it over to the physician's practice.

Last year our insurance company much later demanded we return a portion of the check that they claimed they overpaid - we sent them right over to the physican who we gave the check to and let them hammer out the problems.

No hassle for us... it's their problem

Rob

That's exactly what we did. Unfortunately, I had to sign the checks then mail them but I sent them special mail (can't remember if it was just registered or what) so that at least I had a way to find out where it was. The surgeon's office manager said they do this hoping that the patient will cash the check as you did and not pay the surgeon - thus encouraging the surgeon to go on the network so he can get paid in the future. But nope. None of it went into my accounts but straight to the doctors! Some of those checks were scary big though!!

 

[annsni]

Oh and when I got the check for more than the $12,000 for the surgeon (they had to include a penalty they had to pay since it was now 7 months late), I could have put it in our account and pay the surgeon just the $12,000 but that was his. I did feel I deserved some of it since I was on the phone for hours with the insurance company trying to get him paid but the law says it's the doctor's so I sent it to him.

 

[Gina B]

I didn't know you weren't supposed to pay it first and never thought not to pay it with any type of insurance.
How is it a trick to have to pay it? Any type of insurance seems to clearly say that you pay the deductible first and then they pay on the claim. That's the meaning of it. It says "you pay the first x dollars and then we pay..."

Do people typically NOT do that now and this is somehow different?
I never thought NOT to do that. Even with my car. That would have been nice to know if we didn't have to, lol, I remember holding off on fixing it once because I didn't have the deductible at the time, so I waited until I had it before I took it in for repairs.

Is this one of those unwritten rules nobody bothered to tell me about?! You don't REALLY pay deductibles? If so, why on earth does everything say that you pay it first and that's just how it works? And why wouldn't you want to knock that out of the way first? Though with the high extremes I see in Obamacare, I can definitely see not being ABLE to, or having an emergency and not being able to, but otherwise, it's just another bill you save up for every year and are ready to pay every time you renew your policies, isn't it?

 

[Revmitchell]

Health clinics always do this, as far as I've seen. We have a high deductible insurance plan and when we go to our own doctor, he will bill the insurance company, wait for the insurance company to say "Our agreed amount on this $400 bill is $150. The $150 has been applied to the patient's deductible." Then the doctor will bill us the $150. But when we go to the clinic, we have to pay the full $400 bill and then when the insurance company says that it should be $150, the clinic - in theory - should pay us back the other $250. We've had that happen once and they did. I'm waiting to do this again when my son went there for his ear infection.

That is not what is being done in the op.

 

[Revmitchell]

I didn't know you weren't supposed to pay it first and never thought not to pay it with any type of insurance.
How is it a trick to have to pay it? Any type of insurance seems to clearly say that you pay the deductible first and then they pay on the claim. That's the meaning of it. It says "you pay the first x dollars and then we pay..."

Do people typically NOT do that now and this is somehow different?
I never thought NOT to do that. Even with my car. That would have been nice to know if we didn't have to, lol, I remember holding off on fixing it once because I didn't have the deductible at the time, so I waited until I had it before I took it in for repairs.

Is this one of those unwritten rules nobody bothered to tell me about?! You don't REALLY pay deductibles? If so, why on earth does everything say that you pay it first and that's just how it works? And why wouldn't you want to knock that out of the way first? Though with the high extremes I see in Obamacare, I can definitely see not being ABLE to, or having an emergency and not being able to, but otherwise, it's just another bill you save up for every year and are ready to pay every time you renew your policies, isn't it?

The doctors in the op want to know that you deductible is already paid in full before they will even see you at all.