[whoisjuan]

I think he is definitely talking about ER but I’m pretty sure you don’t get the up front cost for random doctor visits or procedures. They simply collect your insurance information and then tell you that the insurance will send the final outstanding balance. This happens regardless if you have enough coverage or not.

I recently visited an Emergency Room and the whole process behind is really obscure.

Like for example, I got a bill from the health care provider for an owed amount and one letter from the insurance company saying that I owed the healthcare provider another different amount. They are not even close.

The whole experience in the ER was pretty fast and high quality but I feel they did a bunch of extra blood work and stuff just for the sake of getting more money out of the insurance and not necessarily because it was needed.

The way I see it the healthcare system in the US is just designed to squeeze as much as possible from the carriers and viceversa but without thinking too much who is the actual liable party which happens to be the sick individual.

I think this is how we ended up with a super expensive healthcare system that bankrupts people. All parties involved (insurance carriers, healthcare providers, healthcare product suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, doctors) think that the opposing party in any transaction is swimming in money so they optimize for squeezing the shit out of the other. That’s how you end up with ridiculous bill items like $1500 dollars for a simple fluids IV.

[whydoineedthis]

how are "small and medium businesses" the same as "definitely ER"? To me, those are the exact opposite things.

[whoisjuan]

There are hundreds of medium-size providers that do Urgent Care & Walk-In Clinics. So maybe my error was generalizing ER. I'm speaking about going to an urgent care clinic and then being remitted to an actual ER. Either way, I have never been charged upfront or given a cost beforehand in neither of those.