Today I learned that the reason I don’t owe 20% of $83K is that the insurance companies make deals with the hospitals that mark down the cost. So they say $83K and the insurance says “No, it is $49K” Then they trim things here and there, so I pay 20% of $30K. The hospital billing ladies have been really nice and they seem amazed by it all, even as they are explaining it. I don’t know who to kill. Further strange. I was 6 days in ICU. The insurance company sent me a letter that said I was pre-approved for 4. I got billed for 5. Do I have to kill them all? From: tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tcb-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of wuzmop@xxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 11:33 AM To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [tcb] Re: Denis' medical bills update. Similarly, when Sonja had surgery years ago, we got identical, SEPERATE bills from both doctors in the medical practice her surgeon practiced in. Never saw, met, or even knew who the other doctors was. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Hayes <mike@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Tue, Dec 7, 2010 4:29 pm Subject: [tcb] Re: Denis' medical bills update. My wife just had surgery and I have whats considered good insurance and it still cost me $2800 out of pocket. Last year leading up to the time my father died his bill for the 8 months prior was 1.8 million. He had really good insurance and he didn't pay anything. There were doctors billing his insurance that we never saw come or go. On 12/7/2010 4:10 PM, Denis Dodson wrote: I thought that the $30,000+ total cost for falling off the deck was nuts, well today I actually spoke to the very nice hospital billing office lady who corrected me. The actual total bill before insurance was $83,362.67! That does not include the doctor’s, radiology, ambulance, emergency room or oxygen bills. Shirley said this is what it cost to put me back on my feet for the next event, a deer? _____ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - <http://www.avg.com> www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1170 / Virus Database: 426/3304 - Release Date: 12/08/10