My first memory upon opening my eyes Friday afternoon was Dr. John Armstrong holding a jock strap. “Everything went well,” he said.Art Cullen’s Notebook is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
i feel your pain. i had knee replacement surgery in clarion in february. i had to pee before they would let me go home. i could not pee,if my life depended on it. drank a bunch of water, vomitted it up.had to be catherterized. they kept me an extra night. the next day i was able to go potty. check out the inflation reduction act. there was something about reimbursing people with drug costs higher than $2000. maybe that will apply for your out of pocket expenses that aetna won't cover.i can't remember if that takes effect in 2024 or 2025. check with congressman feenstra. i doubt your bill collectors will wait until 2025.
"Sticker price" in medicine is designed for those with no insurance and lots of money--Mayo in Rochester, M.D. Anderson in Houston, Memorial-Sloan-Kettering in NY, etc. benefit greatly from this given all the patients they see from overseas; in fact, that is their business plan. We citizens also benefit as the overseas subsidies enable our insurance companies to negotiate even greater discounts, often more than 50%, even 70%. This foreign subsidy does not reach into Iowa but we still benefit as the out-of-pocket costs to the patient cannot stray too far from the mean or non-emergency care would go elsewhere (see: Medical Tourism).
Point is: don't write the check, yet! Await the EOMB from Medicare and your supplemental insurance and see where you end up. Setting aside co-pays (usually trivial) and deductibles (very variable) I suspect you will be much closer to $65 than $6,500. LMK where you end up.
i feel your pain. i had knee replacement surgery in clarion in february. i had to pee before they would let me go home. i could not pee,if my life depended on it. drank a bunch of water, vomitted it up.had to be catherterized. they kept me an extra night. the next day i was able to go potty. check out the inflation reduction act. there was something about reimbursing people with drug costs higher than $2000. maybe that will apply for your out of pocket expenses that aetna won't cover.i can't remember if that takes effect in 2024 or 2025. check with congressman feenstra. i doubt your bill collectors will wait until 2025.
"Sticker price" in medicine is designed for those with no insurance and lots of money--Mayo in Rochester, M.D. Anderson in Houston, Memorial-Sloan-Kettering in NY, etc. benefit greatly from this given all the patients they see from overseas; in fact, that is their business plan. We citizens also benefit as the overseas subsidies enable our insurance companies to negotiate even greater discounts, often more than 50%, even 70%. This foreign subsidy does not reach into Iowa but we still benefit as the out-of-pocket costs to the patient cannot stray too far from the mean or non-emergency care would go elsewhere (see: Medical Tourism).
Point is: don't write the check, yet! Await the EOMB from Medicare and your supplemental insurance and see where you end up. Setting aside co-pays (usually trivial) and deductibles (very variable) I suspect you will be much closer to $65 than $6,500. LMK where you end up.