BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.

Subject: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Peace
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 06:47 PM

Yep. That is a going rate. If you have all ten toes and all ten nails and need them clipped, I know where you can get it done for the competitive sum of $4180 for BOTH FEET. Does this sound like an offer you can't refuse? Too good to pass up? Well, here ya go!

Who needs to write stories anymore? Read the news.

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 07:24 PM

why am I not surprised? It's a case of "we'll charge anything we can get away with until someone stops us"

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 07:41 PM

In Cuba, they do that and everything else at a hospital for free. They also have a healthier population than North America. I know, because I've been there, and I got to talk to plenty of ordinary Cubans.

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 07:43 PM

Did they have nice heels?

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 08:44 PM

Virginia Mason is the place that my mother was in for two weeks prior to her death. Despite the fact that she wanted her pain medication on a regular schedule (i.e., every four hours) they made her tell them each time she needed it. Then they took another hour to get there with it. Soooooo. . . she cycled through pain, pain relief that included a long nap, a groggy awakening, a period when she felt okay, then pain and having to wait for the meds again. This was dilaudid for the end stage of terminal metastasized breast cancer, and it didn't have to be this way if it was on a regular schedule. She was so disgusted with the whole thing she finally refused anything they wanted to give her, and was moved to an intermediate care facility where she died a couple of days later. She didn't even survive to get to hospice, where they would have at the very least managed the pain properly.

Virginia Mason isn't alone in this practice, but for whatever reason they were practicing it, I think we were all disgusted with their lack of thoughtful treatment. One wouldn't call this "care."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 08:48 PM

Some of them did, Guest. I noticed that the average Cuban, when going out at night, makes sure that his/her clothing and the shoes, above all else, are absolutely spotless and new looking. Most Americans and Canadians dress like bums in comparison. Cubans have that classic Spanish pride and style. They wear the old clothes at work during the day, put on the snazzy stuff for the night life.

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Peace
Date: 09 Sep 05 - 08:54 PM

Before my grandfather died he told my grandmother to take all their money out of the bank. (It was a pittance, but it was THEIR pittance.) Anyway, after he passed away they received a bill from the hospital in Montreal for the exact amount that my grandmother had left in the bank--was something like $14.93. Guess the bank told the hospital accounting department exactly how much was there.

I wouldn't doubt this type of thing still goes on. Ya gotta be rich not to worry about dying.

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: gnu
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 02:33 PM

Those patients got clipped!

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Ebbie
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 02:45 PM

Ha! I guess we did have a thread about toenails. (See Mudcat Dreamng)

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: GUEST,999
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 02:49 PM

Ebbie, if I got my toenails clipped in a beauty salon, would they give me a doggie bag so I have that little extra to toss into the spaghetti sauce?

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: Ed T
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 07:42 PM

If this news story is correct, people are taking care of their toe nails on their own.


New US habit

Subject: RE: BS: Will clip toenails--only $418 per nail.
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Feb 11 - 11:02 PM

The fees charged by the hospital are really not too surprising; but the implied claim that Medicare approved them is BULLSHIT. Medicare may have authorized slightly higher fees than smaller clinics are allowed; but almost never actually pays more than about 40% of what's billed (national average, last time I looked).

Although Medicare is "managed" (note the euphemism) by each state, and rules do vary, the way it works in my state is that the provider bills $1,000; Medicare informs them they are only allowed to charge a Medicare insured patient $400. Medicare pays 80% of the $400, or $320. For those who have a "secondary insurer" a usual secondary insurance payment is at least 80% - and sometimes all - of the remaining $80, and the patient pays what's left (up to, perhaps, $16).

The provider bills $1,000 and gets $400.

If you're uninsured, you pay the hospital the $1,000.

If Medicare decides that a procedure is not an authorized procedure and is not covered, the provider is not permitted to charge the patient anything unless they were clever enough to have the patient sign a waiver before the procedure was performed.

If the patient is uninsured, the patient pays whatever the hospital imagines they can charge.

It should also be noted for those unfamiliar with it that Medicare insurance is not free. An insurance premium is deducted from your Social Security payment every month, and it is fairly substantial relative to your income if SS is all you've got.

ALL INSURERS have similar "standard fees" similar to, although sometimes a little higher than, what Medicare imposes. Insurers who allow providers a higher fee generally pay a lesser percentage of the allowed fee, leaving more for the patient to pay.

A provider who doesn't agree to accept the fees imposed by an insurer is generally unable to offer services to insured patients (more than once per patient?), so they're pretty much blackmailed into agreeing. (... since many uninsured are unable to pay even as much of the amounts billed as the insurers do?)

The higher fees billed mean that the UNINSURED are forced to subsidize the insurance companies (including Medicare). If they can't pay, it usually ends up with some "social welfare" agency working out a settlement which means the taxpayers as a whole pay the subsidy.

(For most clinics/hospitals, it is illegal to refuse to provide "medically necessary service" to anyone, regardless of insurance or other ability to pay. This just results in lots of quibbling about "is it really really really immediately necessary?" ... and sometimes the patient dies while waiting for a decision(?).)

John