Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I just received the latest issue of the AMA Motorcyclist magazine today, and they describe a rider who crashed in Ft. Myers, Florida, and was taken to Lee Memorial Hospital, and he praises the quality of care he received there.
The problem began when he attempted to pay his bill. The hospital refuses to submit the bills to the rider's insurance company. Why? The contract between the hospital and the insurance company provides for caps on payments for various services. If the insurance company is out of the picture, the hospital can charge more for things, and that is what they are trying to do.
When I read this I was enraged and amazed. Maybe this is what we all can expect from hospitals in the future. Unmitigated greed.
The rider said hospital officials wanted his wife to sign papers that said they could go after her if he didn't pay. Sickening.
The hospital's vice president for legal services, a Robert McCurdy, is the one to send all hate mail and personal comments to.
AND WHAT EVER YOU DO, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM FLORIDA IN GENERAL, FORT MYERS ESPECIALLY, AND LEE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL IN PARTICULAR.

Hospitals are businesses. Their sole purpose is to make money. Some can justify this as capitalists, but someone's health is worth a little more than money. Or maybe my priorities are just f'd up? Insurance companies are no better.

I just found out a week ago that my dual hernia surgery and 3 day hospital stay is only worth $1,300 to blue cross.

The hospital demands I pay the remainder of the bill.

This is because the surgery was performed overseas, and not in the states. This is also the FEDERAL EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PLAN. So if you are a FEDERAL EMPLOYEE w/ Blue Cross - You may be serving your country overseas, but your insurance company sure as hell ain't serving you. Of course I'm making all kinds of noise about this - but really wtf can I do against blue cross ... it's like a mouse fart in the wind.

blue cross

my medical bills topped in near 200,000$ from my accident, i had no medical coverage... when i arrived in the hospital they thought i wasnt going to make it so a govt funded place agreed to cover me cause they expected me to be dead any minute(i didnt make much money anyways). but i lived and they got to pay most of it, when i got my accident settlement they of course wanted money and got more then me out of the settlement ; \

Well, then, if hospitals won't even file claims on insurance companies, instead opting to go after the individual, WHY HAVE INSURANCE in the first place? This is very wrong, and I hope we haven't heard the end of the story. A class-action suit is in the works.
Hospitals are not too shameless to include items never used by the patient they are billing, either. Some years ago, I asked for an itemized bill, and found among the items a set of crutches and tampons, neither of which I ever saw or asked for or used.
Of course this happened in Florida, which speaks volumes. My wife lived there for a few years, and hates it top to bottom. She says most people down there should be grateful just to survive the surgery, never mind getting Florida screwed on the bill. It's one of the last stops for inept physicians.

Insurance is a terrible thing So are doctors! Bah, you'd figure with all this religious righteousness from our leaders...they'd find a way to do the right thing and have free emergency health care.

my family received a bill for oxygen that was administered to my father 2 days after he died here in georgia.

zarakand wrote:Insurance is a terrible thing So are doctors! Bah, you'd figure with all this religious righteousness from our leaders...they'd find a way to do the right thing and have free emergency health care.

Move to anywhere else and see what kind of health care you get. I don't mean the price, I mean the quality.
Canadians think they have the best, and yet anyone who can afford to comes to the states for care. I know a guy that flies from London to Florida every 6 weeks to see his Doctor in the states.

Look at it this way- he aint dead.

We have the best healthcare system in the world.

Your guy in London hardly represents anybody living here. Sounds like he could afford to own a doctor.

bennettoid wrote:Move to anywhere else and see what kind of health care you get. I don't mean the price, I mean the quality.
Canadians think they have the best, and yet anyone who can afford to comes to the states for care. I know a guy that flies from London to Florida every 6 weeks to see his Doctor in the states.

Look at it this way- he aint dead.

We have the best healthcare system in the world.

I would agree with the US having the best health care resources in the world, but I do not know about having the best system of delivery. I think most systems are flawed in some way. There are Americans who come to Canada to try and take advantage of our system because they cannot afford care in their own country.

A recent survey by the commonwealth fund has found the Americans are more likely to want to rebuild their system but they were also the most confident in the quality of the care they expected to receive (out of 5 countries surveyed - the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).

At least you have choice concerning docs where here in Canada you get to scramble to find any doctor (at least in Quebec). I actually am a proponent of more private health care in Canada but I have yet to think of an ideal system of delivery (working on it though ) Just my

In Canada you would get emergency care, you just have to wait for it (and perhaps too long)

Cheers,
Gatineau_Guy


Survey

More and more in the US you have to be either very rich, and able to pay out-of-pocket for healthcare, or very poor, being a ward of the state. Welfare recipients have fantastic health benefits. So do prison inmates. In the middle is everybody else, paying premiums on health insurance, and paying the difference between what insurance covers and what doctors and hospitals bill. The gap is widening. People are having to pay an increasing amount over what their insurance company pays, not counting higher and higher deductibles. I pay out the equivelent of the price of a new Harley touring bike every year just for healthcare.
The US may have great healthcare resources, but delivery is a problem, plus the FDA is owned by the drug companies, who also own our doctors. It's a vicious circle of corruption, with the people standing by just wanting a fair shake.
It might have been more accurate to say the US healthcare system is the best money can buy, because it sure seems based on greed, with a dash of power thrown in for seasoning.