healthcare

My morning was spent on the phone with insurance companies today. In addition to checking the status of my appeal for my Simponi I needed to get a firm understanding of why Mr. G’s three hour shoulder surgery was $62,068.84.

I love United Healthcare for too many reasons to list, but one of them was the giggliness of the agent. I was thinking that perhaps the $60,000 bill was meant to give me a heart attack and then they’d make a few extra dollars giving me chest compressions before I died? She thought I might be onto something.

At the end of the day the insurance company will pay just shy of $4,000 and we pay $1,000. The good news is that our maximum out of pocket per person is just $2000 so even if Mr G needs a ton of physical therapy (and it looks like he will) our medical bills will end shortly.

I’m unclear on why hospitals do this. Does anyone ever pay $62,000 for an outpatient surgery? Is there anyone in medical billing that make this make sense to me?

The only happy part? They took party pictures, I’ll share of few of them with you after the jump. If you’re easily skeeved out skip them. Read More »A $62,068.84 Shoulder