Kaiser medical update/praise report

Re: our non-paying Kaiser E.R. visit.....after much prayer and frustration with no positive response from Kaiser, the State, or our attorney I asked the young lady I have been working with in hospital billing about any discounts since we were going to have to pay cash. She gave us a short application form to fill out and upon reviewing it came back out with a piece of paper with $643 written on it. I asked her if that was the discount on the bill and she said no that WAS the bill. I almost fell of my chair! The original amount was $2666! Needless to say I quickly wrote the check and thanked her vigorously! I guess sometimes God makes us wait till the very end to answer our prayers but that's ok we'll take it! Case closed!

NOpe - don't give up on getting a refund from Kaiser.. Keep swinging..

Amazing isn't it ? I had a bill I did not want to pay and felt I shouldn't , but did . The bill was $1,300 . I was in an accident last month , the insurance company offered me a little settlement ( I was not hurt ) the total ? $1,300 .

Glad to hear they did right Chuck :)

I'm glad the hospital discounted it that much. That's over 75%!

Still, I'd be going after Kaiser to cover what they were supposed to cover. Maybe now that the bill is so much less they will spring for it, or at least part of it. As your provider it seem like they should be accountable for *something*.

Nice!
But why did they reduce the bill by so much. Was it wrong in the first place or do they bill insurance companies more than a private individual?

the bill was correct. I don't know why the discount was so much-I certainly didn't expect that much. My total payout ended up being almost exactly what my deductible would have been had Kaiser paid like they should have. We had to turn in a short application of my daughters income due to some new state law so maybe there is a program that funds it. I didn't ask too many questions when they told me that was the total bill- I was short of stunned and just wrote the check after i made sure I heard them right. Got a receipt too!

So your copay/deductible would have been that much with Kaiser? No wonder you are satisfied with the outcome! (-:

You guys need a new system.

Rod H. Wrote:

Scott Wrote:

With all this talk of mandatory health insurance, I would like to know what percentage of money collected by insurance companies (from patients and from doctors) actually gets paid into the health care system, and how much is pocketed by the insurance companies.

I've also wondered why the insurance companys get the 30% to 75% discounts that show up on my distribution of benefits statements.

Do you think that since the insurance companys are telling the doctors and hospitals what tests and procedures they will pay for, that they're also controlling prices and gouging the uninsured?

Although I have heard of several different uninsured people who were paying $40 or $50 dollars a month on a large ($100,000+) medical bill, that were told after a year or two that the hospital had decided to use the unpaid charges as a tax write-off, and they no longer owed anything.

Glad it worked out for you, Chuck.