The state of Maine is a period of conflict. On one side, you have dumbass governor Paul LePage who refuses to pass any spending bill until hospitals are paid, and on the other side, you have the state congress who wants to add about 70,000 Mainers to the MaineCare system and also get bonds already approved by the voters placed in action. It seems that neither side is giving in anytime soon.
However, I believe that the governor is more in the wrong than the state congress. Here’s why:
When I was in the hospital for about a week a few years ago, I noticed that my bill had charges for things that I NEVER had done. The problem is that it is always the hospital’s word against yours. Since I had insurance at the time, I decided not to fight it and just accept what occurred on the bill. After the insurance was paid off, I still had nearly $1000 to pay on my own. Could more of this bill been covered by insurance if some of these charges didn’t exist? Quite possibly, but again I decided not to fight it. However, given that my bill was a 5-digit charge originally, it was still disheartening to pay as much as I had remaining. This brings me to my point. How much of the $400+ million is for services that were either not performed, overcharged for, or charged more than once for?
Another example of overbilling that I suffered from was that my own physician charged $200 every day for each visit even though he was neither treating me nor spending more than 5 minutes visiting me. These charges were added to my ever-increasing hospital bill.
I also wonder how much of the $400+ million is used to pay staff, board of directors, and CEOs. I don’t mind paying staff, but the other groups don’t need the money. Even worse than that is that many of the “local” hospitals are chains run by out-of-state companies. I found this out by seeing that the mailing address to send payments from my hospital went to Massachusetts, not a Maine address. Just how much money gets sucked out of state by all the states hospitals?
Overall, I believe that before one penny is paid of the $400+ million owed that a line-by-line evaluation be given and each item be scrutinized to the fullest extent. Of course, the government regardless of being either state or federal, is known for wasting money anyway so I don’t expect to see any evaluation be done and instead a blank check be sent to the hospitals to pay their bills. It is clueless people like LePage who would waste state money as he has done since he has been in office. Sadly, there is no accountability in Augusta or Washington DC therefore we as state residents continue to get screwed on both ends with things like roads not getting fixed while the governor awaits to pay hospitals piles of cash. Mainers should be ashamed of the way this continuing on with no end in sight. Personally, I would rather see the stalemate continue then overpay the broken hospital system..
John Carpenter
May 23, 2013 @ 22:24:00
A well-written piece, Lou. You write very well.
A payment-for-results system would be far better than a payment-for-service system, for that very reason. Tacking on extras is what business is all about — you know that. Do you have a rewards card? But the medical business is the most lucrative, especially pharmacy.
Have you seen this?
It refers to the new database from the White House: http://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/Medicare-Provider-Charge-Data/index.html
Could be a very useful tool in skirting these outrageous cost add-ons.
Look at this placard I use on the street — Fraud is the method of choice in banking, for those who wish to become rich, says Nobel Prize winner Ackerlof.
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Louis Brown
May 27, 2013 @ 15:11:43
Thank you for your comment. I don’t believe that I was being tacked on “extras”, just charged for things that never should be charged for in the first place including things that never occurred.
As far as a rewards card goes, it depends on the where from. I discussed rewards cards very early in this blog as this was one of the many excuses that were used against me in my termination. However, I don’t see the connection to this particular topic. Maybe I am just not seeing the obvious, but I try to keep this blog as simple as possible for all the readers out there.
As far as the bar graph is concerned, I have seen things similar to this over the years.
The White House database was confusing at best, maybe purposely or again I am just not seeing the big picture here.
As far as fraud goes, it is all around us. Staples is the best example of fraud I know and I will continue to beat them down for as long as I continue to breathe on this earth. They owe me for what they did to me.
Again, thanks and continued support.