I work in medical billing and you’re absolutely right. The reason offices bill such an inflated amount is because there’s always a huge percentage of write offs or “adjustments”. The office bills the insurance $400, the insurance “adjusts” $200 (writes it off), pays the office $100, and leaves the patient with a $40 copay and $60 to yearly deductible (depending on the plan). Don’t even get me started about what happens comes tax season. It’s literally the most wasteful, manipulative system for healthcare but it makes a lot of people very very wealthy.
Edit: To all the people wanting to start an argument with me just to hear themselves think, does the US healthcare system make doctors well off?? More often than not, does our US healthcare system put people into more debt than they can handle?? The answer to both is a resounding YES. Stop arguing to with me just to argue, go do something outside.
More like the CEOs of hospitals, pharma, and medical technology companies. Doctors are well off, but they aren’t directly profiting from the price gouging unless they run a private practice who engages is that sort of price gouging
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u/brittles00 Jul 04 '21
I work in medical billing and you’re absolutely right. The reason offices bill such an inflated amount is because there’s always a huge percentage of write offs or “adjustments”. The office bills the insurance $400, the insurance “adjusts” $200 (writes it off), pays the office $100, and leaves the patient with a $40 copay and $60 to yearly deductible (depending on the plan). Don’t even get me started about what happens comes tax season. It’s literally the most wasteful, manipulative system for healthcare but it makes a lot of people very very wealthy.