Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pay attention to Doc in the box scam

The poor folks know to go to JPS hospital. They don't go to these places.

First thing: like any ER, they are required by law to give anyone who walks in the door a "medical screening exam". This is used to determine if you have a "true emergency", i.e., a life-threatening or potentially disabling injury/illness. If you don't have a "true emergency", the facility can then require you to provide insurance info or cash prior to treatment.

These places DO NOT TAKE Medicare or Medicaid. So if your problem is deemed non-emergent, and you have M&M coverage only, they'll require you to pay cash up front. If your problem is truly emergent, they are required to treat you... but they still don't take M&M, so you'll be on the hook for the charge out of pocket.

Most Medicaid types know where to go for care, so they won't be hurt by these places. But seniors who haven't educated themselves are gonna take a pounding.

Not pretty.

There we go. Doc Rocket knows.
Consider yourself educated JoeBob.

When I was woeking in Ca., I got/had a sinus infection. Went to the regular hospital and there was at least 50 people in the waiting room. Asked the girl at the desk, when I could see the doc and was told it would be at least 5-6 hrs.

Went to one of these emergency care places and saw a doc in 20 min or so. Cost around $600 for steroid shot, antibiotic shot, and sample pack of antibiotics (in case I couldn't get to pharmacy till the next day). Meds were about $150.

Went to my regular doc a few months with same problem. Dr visit, steroid shot, and antibiotic shot was $165. Meds about $50.

Lot of difference between $750 and $225ish.

These new so called ER's are associated with a real hospital, that's how they charge so much for facilities usage.

You can all thank Zero for how things are turning out in the med. field.

My blood work is charged out at $1,200 dollars a visit for just a few things such as A1c, fats in blood test etc.
All run though a hospital for the blood work. Insurance pays under $200 and the corp hospital has to accept this. Corp hospital then uses the $1,000 lose as a write off.

The old time Docs visits are no more out here in my area. Gone.
As soon as the baby boomers are all dead, then things may change back with too many buildings to fill and not enough paying people.

No, he doesn't. They actually do take Medicare and Medicaid.

It is a way for them to call something an Emergency and get more money from Medicare and Medicaid than the $27.50 they would for office visits.

Really? That's surprising. If you read the link I put up earlier, you'll note that the norm is for these free-standing ER's to refuse Medicare/Medicaid.



Well, that's about as far from actually how it works as I can imagine. But I won't try to convince you otherwise.

not related to this directly but another thing I've noticed in the last year or so

it used to be that if I got a rather large medical bill, I could send in the "payments" to the docs office - you know - $100 - $200 a month or whatever to pay it off in 3 or 4 months

The past two times I've done this, the office turned me over to a collection agency without any notice

just yesterday I got a notice from a collection agency for $59

after I had been sending them $100 for the past 2 months.

Never had that issue until this year - and I still do it with the big medical group. It appears they still have a tolerance for it where individual doctors don't.

I'm going to send the $59 directly to the doctor, screw that collection agency

Well, tell me how it works then.

They can't turn down an emergency. They evaluate to see if something is an emergency. Call it an "emergency" and they can bill for it.

Re-read my previous post, #11096920. I explained it there. The "medical screening exam" gets them off the hook for turning down anything other than a true emergency.