Same Service Different Price

[Guest guest]

I was at my a new psychologist for my son's intake appt with their clinic, I was skeptical of the new doctor, however my son, seemed to like her and was comfortable enough to actually talk to her own his own, so I smiled and went with the flow of the appointment.

However when it was time to handle the insurance information, I was talking to my son and casually surrendered my debit card, it was ran and when it was time for me to sign the slip, it was for over 900.00 dollars. I picked my self up of the floor and choked out "what is going on?". the clerk informs me that was the price of the visit, my next gasp, was even with insurance, the clerk says, wait do you have insurance, I immediately rip my card out of the wallet and thrust it out like a holy talisman, she's looking bored and I'm feeling desperate, she humors me by crediting my card and takes my copay of forty dollars. My son was happy with the visit, so I resolve to have cash for the next visit, to avoid heart attacks.

Now a couple of months later I recieve the EOB from my insurance company and see to my shock that the clinic billed them for the same "over 900 dollar visit", the clinic billed the insurance company 397.00 and my copay wasn only twenty dollars. Can they do that? there are good people on this list who've mortgaged homes and burned through IRA's to get their kids treatments, and I'm beginning to see why, the mere fact that I had a piece of plastic with a insurance companies name on it can change the price of an hour with a psychologist coaching my son to fill out the same test he's been given three times before?

I'm confused, isn't that a form of bait and switch?

Joyce

[Guest guest]

It's not unusual for doctor's to have more than one price schedule; and with the insurance, many doctors will contract with providers to bill at preset rates. Some will bill the full $900, knowing they'll only get the contracted $397 (and they write the difference off as a loss). Others will just bill the $397 to save the headache of record keeping.

Byrne

1 in 110 in the general US population have a spectrum diagnosis. 1 in 271 in the US Amish population (IMFAR 03/2010) have a spectrum diagnosis. There's more to this issue than vaccines. Read our kids'stories online at Caring Bridge - http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/prestonbyrne and http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/toribyrne

To: Texas-Autism-Advocacy Sent: Fri, January 14, 2011 3:32:14 PMSubject: Same Service Different Price

I was at my a new psychologist for my son's intake appt with their clinic, I was skeptical of the new doctor, however my son, seemed to like her and was comfortable enough to actually talk to her own his own, so I smiled and went with the flow of the appointment.

However when it was time to handle the insurance information, I was talking to my son and casually surrendered my debit card, it was ran and when it was time for me to sign the slip, it was for over 900.00 dollars. I picked my self up of the floor and choked out "what is going on?". the clerk informs me that was the price of the visit, my next gasp, was even with insurance, the clerk says, wait do you have insurance, I immediately rip my card out of the wallet and thrust it out like a holy talisman, she's looking bored and I'm feeling desperate, she humors me by crediting my card and takes my copay of forty dollars. My son was happy with the visit, so I resolve to have cash for the next visit, to avoid heart attacks.

Now a couple of months later I recieve the EOB from my insurance company and see to my shock that the clinic billed them for the same "over 900 dollar visit", the clinic billed the insurance company 397.00 and my copay wasn only twenty dollars. Can they do that? there are good people on this list who've mortgaged homes and burned through IRA's to get their kids treatments, and I'm beginning to see why, the mere fact that I had a piece of plastic with a insurance companies name on it can change the price of an hour with a psychologist coaching my son to fill out the same test he's been given three times before?

I'm confused, isn't that a form of bait and switch?

Joyce