So, I was just catching up on some bills and stuff tonight, and I have to say how horrible and mortified I am to see exactly how much my surgeon got paid. A mere $1,100 was allowed -- and my insurance paid 100%!!

I feel so bad! Never, ever will I walk into his office and gripe if I have to pay for a fill or something. Insurance is such a discrace sometimes. People have no idea how their doctors get ripped off. They're not as rich as you think. After a surgeon pays malpractice, staff and overhead, there can't be much left to pay himself from a measly payment like that !!!! :(

You insurance may pay less than some others... My insurance has paid about 50k. My Dr. is going just fine

FIFTY? That doesn't sound right for a lapband....

You insurance may pay less than some others... My insurance has paid about 50k. My Dr. is going just fine

You insurance may pay less than some others... My insurance has paid about 50k. My Dr. is going just fine

Agreed!

Mine got paid about 4000.00 and the hospital got paid about 10,000 or more. I was shocked to find out that the hospital got paid more money than the actual surgeon! I was required to pay the hospital the remaining 20% of the hospital bill (1850) and I paid my surgeon 500 deductable plus 110 intial consult fee.

I have to say my dr. is dong pretty well also...My ins. paid 45,000. on my hosp stay. that included the band and a heart cath plus 5 days in hosp.

I think you must've read it wrong. There is no way that they only paid your surgeon $1,100

Well good thing they don't all pay as terrible as mine did. But I still feel like a cheap-o now, as if I walk in there I have "cheap insurance" written all over my forehead or a "we don't make any money off her" sash....LOL

Nope, no error. I own a medical billing service and I read them suckers all day long.....it was horribly right. They did however, mess up and pay the hospital $19,600 when they only allowed $5,600 or so......

I think you must've read it wrong. There is no way that they only paid your surgeon $1,100

My doctor charged 4,000 for his services and the negociated rate was 2500 which my insurance paid 100%

That's the real problem about medicine in the USA you have no idea of what the real value of the proceedures being done. The physicians quote an inflated price knowing that the evil insurance companies are going to slash the payment to 25% or less of the billed service. Most of the insured folks have deductibles and co-pays so the insurance companies pay even less than that. You must also keep in mind that the AVERAGE cost of 80/20 coverage with a $1,000.00 deductible policy is around $10-14K anually with most of the paid for by your employer as deferred wages while your actual wages creep up at just under inflation. It's been that way here in the USA for 30+ years ever since insurance companies followed Medicare's lead in the Diagnostic Related Grouping (DRG) payment scheme.

Doctors real incomes on a per patient basis have been going down while insurance profits have skyrocketed. That's why most PCP's see 8 patients an hour just to break even.Yepper, the USA has the best healthcare in the world (icy sarcasm here, not my real belief)

I wouldn't mind paying the physician/surgeon a fair amount, but what is that? Who knows....

Sorry if this ofends anyone. It's not a political statement. The simple truth is that we are not getting what we are paying for the services we are buying when all the costs are considered. And, the self pay people are the ones getting hauled over the coals the most in the whole system. Nuff said..

My bill was $29,829, looks like my insurance paid $6,039, and I paid $2500, plus like $400 more for the anesthesiologist.

Yea it's all medical politics I'm sure. It's hard on insurance (sick people costing too much, not sick people not buying insurance) and it's hard on the doctors because some people can't afford to pay or don't pay, insurance pays them less, equipment is expensive, lawsuits, malpractice insurance all that stuff. It's complicated!

Believe me, dental insurance is even worse in many cases. There are quite a few that pay less for a cleaning than the Dr. has to pay a hygienist, so the Dentist is in the red on those. This is why in some cases the dental office encourages "up-selling". They try to get the patient to do extra things like extra fluoride treatments or extra x-rays that really are not needed. When you have to pick a dentist from a list of providers and you find only a few that will take that insurance, that is a sign of those companies who don't pay the dentist well. You may have no choice to get better insurance, so you go to one of those on the short list. You get to the office and feel like you are being herded through and you are just a number. The personalized care feeling is gone. In those cases the dentist and hygienist have to see 2, 3 or more patients in the time they would have only seen one with better insurance. It's the only way they can keep the lights on, buy supplies, pay someone to run the front desk and pay malpractice insurance. There was a case just the other day where the insurance company only paid the Dentist $5 each on a couple fillings he did on a man. The man did not have a co-pay because he pays the insurance company for the upgraded plan. The insurance company is making the money off him, not the Dentist. The dentist paid more in supplies and a dental assistant than what the insurance paid him for doing the fillings. I could go on and on about how the insurance companies are ripping off Dr.s and Dentists. I think it will only get worse in the future.

i only paid $1000 to my surgeon $200 to my anathesiest and $150 excess for my private room... medicare n my health fund covered the rest

My insurance company also paid 40k and they paid 100%...no copay or deductible. I have no clue what the surgeon got because I don't get a breakdown. I did get very friendly with a woman in the waiting room once when getting a fill. She said she was self-pay...had no insurance and her total self pay was around 8k. When my sister had no insurance, her doctors would charge her $40 for an office visit...while they charged insurance patients $80.

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BigTOm1948 - you're so RIGHT. I agree with you!

I believe my Surgon up'd his prices so he'd get the max payment back from my insurance Co.

50k covered everything for me, from testing to the surgery.

I would do it agian in a heartbeat