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Your medical dollars working hard for you:
(07-16) 14:08 PDT Sierra Vista, Ariz. (AP) --
Hundreds of people who were treated at a southern Arizona hospital received exorbitant medical bills as high as $49 million because of a computer error.
A malfunction in new computer software occurred July 2 and affected statements for 587 patients who were treated at Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox, said Kim Aguirre, director of patient financial service for the hospital.
"The highest statement is $49 million," Aguirre said. "I can't wait to hear from that person."
Peta-Anne Tenney received a bill for more than $100,000.
"I just laughed," she said. "I said to (my husband), 'Look at this, this is a doozy."
Aguirre said Nashville, Tenn.-based Healthcare Management Systems processes statements for the hospital and mails them to customers. She said the company is supposed to check for errors.
"They are supposed to look at the statements, but they told us they had numerous hospitals to process that day and they didn't look," she said.
Aguirre said she spoke with the company and that a similar error will not happen in the future.
She said corrected statements should be arriving within 10 working days.
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I don't have dental insurance and needed some work done. After explaining the situation to my children's dental provider (They're covered by HMSA), they said they'd do an extraction for about half of their normal fee. I was apreciative, but have to wonder if I was getting a great deal, or are the insurance companies paying double?
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Its more like retail versus wholesale. Healthcare providers have their "retail" rate (full price) and a discounted rate they give the insurance companies. You're probably getting 1/2 off the "retail" rate, which is probably close to the insurers would pay them.
John Dirgo, R, ABR, e-PRO
Aloha Coast Realty, LLC
808-987-9243 cell
http://www.hawaiirealproperty.com
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Interesting little tidbit. Not worth moving to Cuba for, but one can't help but wonder how the U.S. can spend a trillion $ (more or less) in Iraq, and still lag behind them in child mortality rates:
The number of children dying before their fifth birthday is seven per 1,000 live births in Cuba, versus eight per 1,000 in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.
Edited by - toucano on 07/17/2007 20:25:00
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Cuba vs. US infant mortality rate is indeed an interesting number. Assuming these facts are correct one might deduce that quality health care is not necessarily related to how much is spend on health care but rather access to health care.
Going by my own experience of raising a family, most of our healthcare needs were basic and most likely could have been serviced at a clinic faculty. Perhaps creation of small community based free clinics with emphasis on prevention might service a majority of needs.
Wonder why the free market doesn’t seem to work for the medical establishment?
Edited by - adias on 07/18/2007 01:11:03
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"the U.S. can spend a trillion $ (more or less) in Iraq, and still lag behind them in child mortality rates"
this is because the right wing warmongers in this country(bush&supporters)only care about embryos&fetuses, but once they are born they are nothing but cannon fodder to exploit for profit for themselves.
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quote:
I watched it here 
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/show.do/9/4667
I also saw it here this past weekend. But as of Sunday Night it was down! 
I'm appalled that people would even try to defend our health care system in America! We are the only country in the entire industrialized world that doesn't have universal health care!? We should be ashamed! Just more proof of the gap between have's & have not's! It truly sickens me that our country allows it! But what sickens me even more is how some people look upon poverty as some kind of evil!?
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You are so right about the fetus statement. They want every blastocyst and zygote to become a full grown consumer dittohead. Would be real interesting to see what kind of world it would be if there were all those extra people running around [think about people trying to conceive through invitro and the multiple multiple blastocysts sitting in labs/destroyed in labs] We cannot take care of the people we have now-and to force people to have kids they don't want-a nice recipe for child abuse. Pretty lame as well how the religious right pick and choose which biblical versus to follow and those not to. Religion is such a big problem in this world. It would be one thing if everyone was the same religion-but clearly we aren't.
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quote:
You are so right about the fetus statement. They want every blastocyst and zygote to become a full grown consumer dittohead. Would be real interesting to see what kind of world it would be if there were all those extra people running around [think about people trying to conceive through invitro and the multiple multiple blastocysts sitting in labs/destroyed in labs] We cannot take care of the people we have now-and to force people to have kids they don't want-a nice recipe for child abuse. Pretty lame as well how the religious right pick and choose which biblical versus to follow and those not to. Religion is such a big problem in this world. It would be one thing if everyone was the same religion-but clearly we aren't.
Has anybody else noticed this too? It has come to my attention that it's always these "Anal Retentive Right-wing Males", who are always trying to close down these abortion clinics. As a matter of fact, they remsemble G.W. Bush's base to a "T"!!!!
But after watching 'Sicko', I'd never vote for Hillary Clinton either! She was second on a rather large list of Senators who receive $$$ from the Health Care Industry, namely these insurance companies who decide the fate of sick individuals. Second to only GW Bush if I remember correctly? She gets almost a million annually from these jerks. It's a shame that she was bought out!
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Pete - where did you get the 3 percent number for overhead on Medicaid? My wife is a medicaid dentist and the administration tells her that their overhead takes more than 70 cents from each dollar - less than 30 cents goes to actual treatment.
This isn't a verified statistic, and it may be wrong. But I would be amazed if they could cover overhead for 3 percent. Again, this isn't based on statistics, but I don't know of anything the government runs that efficiently, outside of running in circles.
Does anyone know how to verify mediciad numbers?
Also, I heard they have universal health care in Massachusetts now, and the wheels didn't seem to fall off the cart there. I don't know details on the plan, though. It might not be completely universal coverage.
I'll look into that plan and will let you know what I find.
I found an employer who provides reasonably priced health care. And my contract with this firm runs out in 184 days. It sucks to already be calculating how much the payment will jump when I go COBRA.
