WatchI have a suspicious mole on my back, and would like a dermatologist to look at it. But FIRST, I want to know:
A: What will the dermatologist charge?
B: How much if anything will my insurance cover?
So the question is whether it is even possible in America to know in advance what a visit will really cost the patient.
I'll keep my experience updated here.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
RedStar says
It's burritos who takes umbrage... I worked taking denials to patients.
By the way, burritos, since you're here and obviously a doctor, can I get a consult? It hurts when I move my arm...
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I don't work for Kaiser, but have many friends and family who are physicians who do. These physicians are getting killed.
I'm curious what you mean here? I've told this story before, but I know someone who enjoys working at Kaiser much more than her previous hospital gig. If she sends someone to a specialist, a lot of time the specialist comes to her office to see the patient. She gets to see the specialist in action and broadens her general medical knowledge. BTW, it's nice to have someone else here defending Kaiser as I usually take a lot of arrows. Elliemae, I'm enjoying the back and forth; you certainly have some good points regarding care outside of urban areas.
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Baltimore, MD
My last doctors office visit was $290, just to write 2 prescriptions. I cancelled the follow up visit. I felt ripped off.
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Newbury Park, CA
elliemae says
Did overlook last night after we dumped our kids with grandparents. Quickie but goodie. Just did riverside walk. Always pleasant especially when your 5 year old tells you he has to take a crap midway through the hike. Now it's nap time for my 2 year old and the lucky grandparent get to take a shot at Angel's Landing while I get to debate medical benefits on a real estate board.
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Newbury Park, CA
elliemae says
No trauma right? I'll usually shoot an xray at the site of the pain which in my 10 year career has never shown anything significant. Then so long as there's no side effects or adverse effects, I'll usually prescribe a tapering course of steroids, a muscle relaxer, and a narcotic if it's a lot of pain. Sometimes I'll prescribe a BCKL(baclofen, cyclobenzaprine/ketoprofen/lidocaine) topical gel if people aren't into pill popping. Then, I'll offer PT, if that is the patient's thing. Then I'll give the patient an ortho eval for local injection if not better in 10-14 days.
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Alameda, CA
burritos says
Yes, but can you tell me in advance what it will cost?
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Boca Raton, FL
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There's a simple fix to this. A law that the state will mandate a price if one isn't given beforehand.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
elliemae says
Ahhhhhh, you were supposed to say, "don't move your arm."
Unfortunately, it's RA that chose to settle in the site of some pretty hefty horse-bucking traumas. Prednisone for flares, drugs for maintenence. Enjoy Zion.
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Newbury Park, CA
bdrasin says
$90 for new patients. $80 for repeat. $100 for the xray. I give the patient the option if they want it. I usually tell them it's highly unlikely that the xray will show anything, but if THEY want me to be complete we'll be happy to irradiate them unnecessarily. When I put it that way and I do put it that way, surprisingly 30-40% who pay cash still want the xray. So imagine in the insurance world, why would any patient turn down anything?
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Newbury Park, CA
elliemae says
Zion was awesome. On to Bryce.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
This view is enough to make any sick person well - Snow Canyon (which I bragged about already). 10 miles Northwest of St. George, Utah on Route 18.
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Don't the hard-core Mormons live in that area? Polygamy and all?
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Baltimore, MD
Actually I have gotten estimates for dental work. I got the dentists office to submit codes for estimate to the insurance company and a month later I get the estimate in the mail. Not a particularly good way to do it since one can't always wait a month.
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Alameda, CA
burritos says
I was sort of joking, but your response got me thinking...I guess maybe in the same situation a sweedish doctor and probably also a doc at Kaiser Permanente would be explicitly deviating from the "standard of care" (I hope I am using this term correctly) and have to justify the decision. What people want isn't always what they need.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
I had a dog with edema (swelling) in his back legs. They gave him lasix to reduce the fluid retention and heart meds to treat the underlying condition. It worked.
Same thing - only with a person... they undergo all sorts of tests and arrive at something definitve, only to be treated with lasix and cardiac meds. It's the threat of being sued, and also the off chance something else could be going on, that causes thousands of dollars worth of tests.
I still have patients who get a common cold and tell me they're going to ask for antibiotics. I tell them they can go to the doctor and get treated, and that they'll be better in about 7 days. But if they don't, they'll be sick for a week.
;)
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Newbury Park, CA
elliemae says
Swelling in the legs most commonly is caused by dependent edema, which is basically your veins in your leg is getting less efficient. No biggie. But swelling legs can also be caused by early liver failure, heart failure, kidney failure, deep venous thrombosis of your inferior vena cava, pelvic tumor resulting in obstructin of your lymphatics. Personally, I usually just give lasix and skip the tests, but I think most patient would prefer their doctor consider some of the other serious possibilities. For me, usually just roll the dice. After all, it's not my legs and I figure if they don't get better, they'll be back, or in the ER, or worse.
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
okay, i could have said that he was elderly and his breed typically has cardiac problems. While he was there, they placed a kitten next to him and she stuck her tail in the air... Then they threw a ball and a labrador retriever brought it back.
Having performed a cat scan, and a lab test...
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Baltimore, MD
elliemae says
What was the price difference?
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treatmentreport's website
Patrick, I had to use Anthem estimate cost tool recently and it's getting better. I wrote about in a blog post a while ago: http://www.treatmentreport.com/blog/2011/06/repost-review-of-anthem-bluecross-%E2%80%9Ccompare-facility-cost-and-quality%E2%80%9D-tool/
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Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
zzyzzx says
The dog's meds were $20, the tests would have been $500. He lived another 3 years, chasing balls and being obnoxious. The dog loved little kids - so I'd have to go to the neighbor's house to find him. He allowed little girls to dress him up and went bike riding with neighborhood boys (after my kids grew up). He was a trip.
You know your dog is more popular than you when he gets invited to the neighbor's 7 year old birthday party - and you weren't. I paid the kid back for not inviting me - bought him a basketball that the dog stole from him and herded all over the neighborhood.
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Treatmentreport,
I think HealthNet has a similar tool. Haven't used it, though.
Amazing how big the spread is between $3k and $12k, roughly. What could be the reason?
Edit: Actually, I don't know whether they do cost comparisons between multiple vendors. Maybe they provide just one cost estimate.
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treatmentreport's website
justme,
some hospitals just have pricing power and their is nothing an insurance company can do to them. I believe that it's good marketing/reviews that make people want to go there and the insurance has to pay up higher rates. I know someone that worked at an insurance company negotiating with providers. He said that some hospitals were notoriously bad about their prices.
For simpler procedures such as ultrasound, outpatient facilities are always cheaper than in hospitals one that tack on a bunch of fees.
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Hi Patrick,
A friend who is uninsured had the same question. He went to get an overall check up from a dermatologist and the doc he saw told him he had a mole that should be removed. Cost: at least $250.
He decided to get a second opinion. The second one didn't think it looked that worrisome, measured and photographed it, told him to check the size in a few months and see if it grew. This was a few years ago. My friend still has the mole.
This friend has a regular meetup to educate people who are uninsured about taking care of their health, and how to minimize costs to the docs. (He takes superb care of his health.)
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
I've decided to just see a general practitioner for now, since that should be 100% covered by my insurance as my annual physical. And I can ask him about a bunch of other stuff too.
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Baltimore, MD
You can go to the doctor and get it 100% covered?
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
One annual physical, yes. Maybe I should confirm that before going.
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Baltimore, MD
You should be asking what type of mandatory tests that they will make you take to jack the bill as well.
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Santa Cruz, CA
You can know how much a consultation costs.
Your treatment cost is unknown, or whether or not you even need treatment.
1. minor surgery 2. minor plastic surgery for scar 3. biopsy 4. reading biopsy with stained tissue samples.
Of course doing nothing is always an option.
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My daughter went to GP and had moles looked at. He suggested going to dermatologist. That cost $20 copay. Then at dermatologist they removed one pencil eraser size mole and another slightly larger. Cost: Again $20 copay for office, $190 for doctor and $332 for pathology, after allowable charges by Anthem, I still owe $150.25 to doctor and $236 for pathology. So basically $213 per mole. Defintely will get them burned rather than excised in future.
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Patrick says
The GPs job is to throw you into crisis and have a shitload of tests done he can mark up and a shitload of referrals he can make so he can bag kick backs.
You're probably fine.
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
BTW, I got screwed anyway!
I carefully confirmed that one annual physical is covered 100% and make an appointment for a physical and nothing else.
Then I got a bill for $325 for an "Office Visit", which is not covered by my insurance.
I called and confirmed that I made an appointment for a physical, and they said they'd check the coding. If they don't code it as what I asked for, I do plan to go to small claims court over it.
Boy I hate the medical system. I probably am fine, except that their billing is going to give me a stroke.
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Next time go to a cash doctor. He'll tell you exactly what the price is, and will treat you much better.
Your bill will be lower than what you paid.
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Right, the docs are out to fuck the patient and the insurers because they're victims of both. They'd mug you if they thought you had any money in your wallet.
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Los Angeles, CA
Maybe its possible to make a list or calculator for figuring out the costs of medical procedures up front? Perhaps similar to the rent vs buy calclulator. You could select from a list of 'treattments' and options and it would have boxes to fill in ahead of time that would tell you what to ask them BEFORE the appointment/treatment.
We really need to make the medical industry accountable like other professions - you should be able to get a quote up front in writing and they should NOT be able to arbitrarily tack fees on without you signing a new quote.
Its really insane, maybe Patrick and some good software coding can help!
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
PockyClipsNow says
But they won't tell you!
Prices are all SECRET and the only way you can find out what they are is when you get the bill.
I suppose I could try to get everyone to enter medical codes, bill amounts, and provider from their own bills, kind of like gasbuddy.com, but I bet hardly anyone would do it, even if it were completely anonymized.
I'm having no luck getting any departing tenant to say anything about their rentals:
http://www.patrick.net/forum/?p=1214531
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Just a follow-up @Patrick, since it's been more than six months. How did this story turn out? Did you photograph the mole, and has it changed or remained stable?
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46 male
Menlo Park, CA
Thanks for asking!
I called twice and was assured twice that the mis-billing would be corrected because their own records showed I had made an appointment for a physical. But it was not corrected and I started getting calls from a collection agency.
So I wrote two letters and got no response at all to them. Finally I filled out the small claims papers and went to file them at the court. The court clerk told me I did not have the exact correct legal name to serve papers to, so I had to go look that up. Since I was passing the Palo Alto Medical Foundation anyway, I stopped in to show them that I was about to file suit.
A nice person in the billing office assured me they would fix it, but I pointed out I had been told that before. But it looks like a credible threat of suing worked. I have not been billed by them for a month now so I think they finally did correct their error.
The doctor said the mole is nothing to worry about.
I would rather die than deal with them again.
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Yes
And it's cheaper than most people's copay.
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Patrick says
This may be the best reward of being a difficult patient. If you were a typical patient, especially with gold plated "Cadillac insurance", you might need a lot more tests to get the same answer. And, if any of those tests showed an ambiguous result or if any samples got switched at the lab, you might need some expensive and dangerous procedures too. That's how the premature deaths caused by "preventive care" tend to offset the lives "saved" by it, even before counting the fact that those "saved" include Elizabeth Edwards and others who endured more than five years of treatments without living much longer than if they had done nothing.
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Patrick says
That's the whole idea. Pay your premium. Shut up. Die on time with half your wealth in the hands of a criminally insane insurance company.