a while back, I met a cool lady who runs this – she did a presentation at NY Tech Meetup. Only now am I beginning to appreciate
what she was up against. Also, I don’t think she can win.
Spent over an hour on the phone with the insurance and with the medical
billing office, trying to understand why two seemingly identical 10-minute
visits to the same pediatrician, a month apart, were $86.03, after
insurance’s discount, in one case, and $164.87 in the second.
Apparently, there is a myriad of factors that they themselves cannot
explain – but apparently day of the week matters, as does “what was done”
and what the issue was. Looking at a runny eye apparently is cheaper than
looking at a rash, even if the doctor is the same. Also, the insurance
company is weirdly secretive, and the doctor only would release meaningless
numeric codes: then, one has to call back to the insurance company and ask
what the codes were.
I heard how terrible NHS is from multiple friends who moved to UK. But why
should our system be so needlessly complicated?
tinfoilparachute 