Saturday, July 24, 2004
Fee-for-Service – Increasingly Ridiculous
Yesterday we received additional evidence of how ridiculous the fee-for-service system has become.
As previously reported, Mrs. Wittrup (Marilyn) had a damaged rotator cuff surgically repaired last April. The operation took a little more than two hours and she returned home on the same day.
In yesterday’s mail we received the report from our Medicare supplementary insurance, summarizing the surgeon’s bill and how it was settled.
Details are as follows:
Billing code Amount billed Medicare paid Supplementary paid We paid
29827 5,500.00 1,187.07 237.41 0
29826 1,850.00 368.70 73.74 0
29823 1,000.00 83.32 16.66 0
Totals 8,350.00 1,639.09 327.81 0
One wonders how long a system so outlandish can survive.
Surely we ought to be thinking seriously about what will happen when it collapses.
Yesterday we received additional evidence of how ridiculous the fee-for-service system has become.
As previously reported, Mrs. Wittrup (Marilyn) had a damaged rotator cuff surgically repaired last April. The operation took a little more than two hours and she returned home on the same day.
In yesterday’s mail we received the report from our Medicare supplementary insurance, summarizing the surgeon’s bill and how it was settled.
Details are as follows:
Billing code Amount billed Medicare paid Supplementary paid We paid
29827 5,500.00 1,187.07 237.41 0
29826 1,850.00 368.70 73.74 0
29823 1,000.00 83.32 16.66 0
Totals 8,350.00 1,639.09 327.81 0
One wonders how long a system so outlandish can survive.
Surely we ought to be thinking seriously about what will happen when it collapses.
