Comments on: The Irrational World of Healthcare Billing http://company.changehealthcare.com/the-irrational-world-of-healthcare-billing/ Behind the Scenes at change:healthcare Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:02:20 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Bob http://company.changehealthcare.com/the-irrational-world-of-healthcare-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-293 Bob Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:47:28 +0000 http://company.changehealthcare.com/?p=264#comment-293 I just got the bill from a radiologist, Dr. Peeter Jakobson M.D. who apparently practices from a digital screen in Alabama. He 'read' the digital images for a hospital in Florida, then submitted bills to me, and Blue Cross. Interestingly enough, Blue Cross ONLY allowed 25% of his claim, ($527 to read 2 CT scans and a plain Xray of the abdomen) leaving me with his request for $33.23 more! Given that the total time spent by a competent radiologist to do this task would be no more than 10 minutes, and that he WAS paid $132 for those 10 minutes, this makes his hourly actual payment in the order of $700! Not bad, not bad at all. $5600 a day for an 8 hour day, $28K a week! No wonder radiologists and pathologists vie for the highest annual salary! (Pathologist gets $5 for every URINE DIP done in a hospital, even though it is done by the nurses!) We need better than this. We're wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on an unjust war, and can't provide quality health care for our citizens at a reasonable cost. Something is broken, and perhaps Obama can lead the way to fixing it. I just got the bill from a radiologist, Dr. Peeter Jakobson M.D. who apparently practices from a digital screen in Alabama. He ‘read’ the digital images for a hospital in Florida, then submitted bills to me, and Blue Cross. Interestingly enough, Blue Cross ONLY allowed 25% of his claim, ($527 to read 2 CT scans and a plain Xray of the abdomen) leaving me with his request for $33.23 more!

Given that the total time spent by a competent radiologist to do this task would be no more than 10 minutes, and that he WAS paid $132 for those 10 minutes, this makes his hourly actual payment in the order of $700! Not bad, not bad at all. $5600 a day for an 8 hour day, $28K a week! No wonder radiologists and pathologists vie for the highest annual salary! (Pathologist gets $5 for every URINE DIP done in a hospital, even though it is done by the nurses!)

We need better than this. We’re wasting hundreds of billions of dollars on an unjust war, and can’t provide quality health care for our citizens at a reasonable cost.
Something is broken, and perhaps Obama can lead the way to fixing it.

]]> By: AlexM http://company.changehealthcare.com/the-irrational-world-of-healthcare-billing/comment-page-1/#comment-289 AlexM Sat, 16 Aug 2008 11:23:28 +0000 http://company.changehealthcare.com/?p=264#comment-289 Your blog is interesting! Keep up the good work! Your blog is interesting!

Keep up the good work!

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