{{ Americans have many justified grievances with insurance companies, which often refuse to cover necessary care.
But this particular fight was not actually about putting the interests of patients against those of rapacious corporations. Anthem’s policy would not have increased costs for their enrollees. Rather, it would have reduced payments for some of the most overpaid physicians in America. And when millionaire doctors beat back cost controls — as they have here — patients pay the price through higher premiums. }}
About 10 years ago, I had a small gold weight implanted in my left eyelid to force the eyelid to close some more. The middle of my cornea was getting dried out because when I blinked, it wasn’t covering the whole eye.
This procedure required about a 1/4" to 3/8" incision to place the weight just under the skin. If I had that kind of wound on my eyelid for any other reason, I’d put a bandaid on it, and be on my way.
I asked the surgeon if he could do the procedure in his office. He said “No”. Since it was an “implant” it had to be done in a hospital and the hospital would keep any records in case of a recall, etc. So I said “Fine”. Then I said, 'Since this is such a simple procedure, can you do it under local anesthetic? I don’t want to accept the risks of sedation or anesthesia for something this small. He said, “OK”.
About a week before the surgery, I get a call from “Anesthesiology Services” and they start asking me all kinds of questions. So I ask them “Doesn’t the surgical order say that this is being done under local anesthetic? She confirms that it does?
I ask, “Why am I even talking to you guys?” She said that an anesthesiologist had to be there in case something went wrong”. I said, “It’s like a 1/4” incision. I’m not going to pay you guys thousands of dollars to stand there as spectators."
Then she asks me “How are you getting home”. I said, “I’m driving myself home since I’m not getting any anesthesia or sedation.” She said that’s not permitted.
I said, OK. I’ll call the surgeon’s office and cancel the procedure.
When I called the surgeon’s office to cancel since I was unwilling to pay an anesthesiologist as a spectator. They said, "Oh, no. Don’t do that. We’ll straighten out “Anesthesiology Services”.
I didn’t get a bill from an anesthesiologist. But somehow the hospital still charged me $1,800 for “Anesthesiology Services”. When I alerted the insurance company to the fact that I got no sedation or anesthesia, they told me that “The hospital gets to charge us for “Anesthesiology Services” whether you get anesthesia or not.”
It may well be that Anesthesiology is our most financially fraudulent medical specialty. {{ LOL }}
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