Do you expect everyone from whom you seek services to lend you money as well? If not, then why is your doctor supposed to also be your short-term lender? Small office bills need to be budgeted so you have money available, just like other expenses for which savings are supposed to cover. If you need credit, use a credit card. Honestly, people would not expect to pay for a car repair for a vehicle on which they depend by asking the mechanic to wait until a warranty claim was paid; they just don’t get their car backuntil the bill is paid.

Would doctor’s offices allow payment plans for those who couldn’t do that? Wouldn’t that then require office staff who could handle that, too?

Just curious!

I doubt it, too. But if they wanted that, they would see that in fact it comes at a price. They could pay, or not. Those who think a copay of $20.00 is onerous probably wouldn’t. But then again, there would no longer be a copay for them; they would have to pay for their service in full at the time of the visit.
All the processing chargewould cover, if they paid it, would be the filing paperwork. They could still do it themselves if they didn’t want to pay.

LMAO LMAO. You really think someone complaining about a 20$ copay will pay for that “service”. I highly doubt it.

For the simple reason that they are very costly to employ: they require salaries, benefits, vacations, workspace, computers and support, all of which has to be paid for in full and on time, unlike the payments of many private and public medical insurers. Practices that expect to shift to a non-insurance-based business model have to price competetively to attract the cash-paying patient, and the ability to do that requires cost containment. Salaries are the largest component of overhead expense for most outpatient medical practices. If chasing insurance payment is no longer necessary, then why pay he expenses needed to do that?

I think patients should realize that having someone else navigate the claims process on their behalf is a valuable service in itself, and one worth paying for. Usually they are not asked to do so, but that should change, especially in a cash-for-service model that ordinarily leaves the claims filing to the person who pays for the insurance coverage. A separate claims-filing business would be a reasonable alternative, and could be paid for by those who wanted the convenience and service.

You would be WRONG with that statement. Many people have major medical (especially those without reasonable employee insurance) in which doctor visits, labs etc are payed out of pocket while hospitalization/surgery’s are covered in the plan. Maybe you fall into the group that does not pay more than a token copy. Many people do not fall into that category. Given the fact he is getting an echo (and likely has health problems) he could be making a huge mistake by not having some type of catastrophic plan.

I assumed he didn’t have ins. because not many people with ins. will pay hundreds of dollars up front unless they have too..

Why do I think I couldn’t go it alone? Because I was in the hospital for 17 days, had 3 major surgeries in 3 months, and several ER visits for serious med reactions and complications of illness. I could barely get out of bed alone…let alone figure out all the insurance mess.

But then – that’s why we have a need for patient advocates nowadays… I’m lucky that I had my family.

I don’t think I should get medical care for free by any means, but it’s easy to say that patients should have to deal with the hassle of insurance all on their own when you’re not the one having to do that while struggling to stay alive, too. The fact of the matter is that there are people in most offices who know the ins and outs of insurance and while these people are available to patients, why just delete them and force patients to struggle with this alone? I’m very grateful that there are a number of people I met along my path who helped me sort through the insurance stuff because I definitely could not have done it by myself.

Just my 2 cents.

J@#(s Chr(*t Can you read? that is what major medical is for. Do you actually read other posters?