Tuesday, July 13, 2010

This is simply unfair.............

There are things that are really synonymous to the words "open secrets" or " unwritten laws" and the essence of these words usually will underline unfairness, so story goes...................

Accompanied my lovely wife for her medical check up to destiche the 11 stiches for her tendon repair together with my in laws and sister in law,(they flew up just to see her, how nice they are), as she was waiting for her turn to see the doc, i sauntered out to the lobby to read my book (it is brigther in the lobby then the waiting gallery), suddenly i overheard this conversation transpired between two elderly patients.

Patient A." You know the nurse told me the charges would be different for my cataract surgery."
Patient B," How different?"

Patient A." She said if i claim against insurance for the surgery the charges will be about another few hundred more than if i pay cash or credit card."
Patient B," Sure or not?"

Because i had the similiar experience when my mother had her cataract surgery, she was asked if she wanted to use insurance or cash and when my mother told me about the so called "discrepency" i called up the insurance company to lodge a complaint.

The person in charge of my complaint told me that she had heard about such "double standard" but they were unable to do anything about it cos it was like " a willing buyer and a willing seller" situation.

She then told me if i could get a written quotations for the "double standard" from the hospital concerned, i fired back at her telling her that i'd tried but they refused.

Back to the conversation between the two aunties, i then joined in the conversation and sharing with these two aunties my mother's experience.

This is damn unfair,dont you think so? I use my insurance to cover for my sickness, in the end i was made to pay more than i should and eventually all the insurance companies start telling the comsumers that they have got no choice but to increase the insurance premium for the high medical costs incurred by their policy holders.

P/S : Sometimes we are really at someone's mercy

22 comments:

  1. touch wood but i've not claimed any insurance before so i'm not aware of all this.

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  2. Some hospitals (private) ones are simply blood sucker. :(

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  3. Really unfair, we complaint, we lodge report but in the end same thing "we can't do anything to change it".

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  4. wah..u very keh poh hor...

    anyway those paying cash or credit card is IMMEDIATE money for the hospital. Cash flow ma.

    For insurance, it takes a longer time for the claims and what not..so its like 2-3% higher lo.

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  5. what else is fair? when we fight, they think we are looking for trouble...if we don't fight, they take it for granted...

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  6. yes, i heard of this before.. nothing we can do.. we pay to buy them, they settle our bills..

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  7. Maybe they want to fleece the insurance companies? One day, all must have medical insurance...or else no treatment like in all those advanced countries overseas.

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  8. my gudness! got such thing? sigh really unfair.

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  9. unfair lar...but haizzz i oso duno, they open clinic to make $$$

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  10. i didnt know about that. Ya very unfair and sometimes the insurance policy have certain limit claimable for each year. So unfair la if the hospital claim more and when we need to use more then will have to pay from own pocket expenses pulak.

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  11. I know this and take it as a norm. It happened to me everytime I used the insurance coverage for my children, when they needed to visit the PD in the Columbia Asia hospital. The medical fee is always double higher than paid by cash or credit card.

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  12. allow me to dispel some myths about doctors' fees in private hosps.

    our fees are capped by MMA, ie. there a max we can charge for a particular procedure & the insurance companies are well aware of the quantum of these charges, eg. for caesarean section alone, the obstetrician can charge a max of RM1650. if there is insurance cover, he will charge the max allowed. if the patient pays from the pocket, he may charge less - it depends on his goodwill.

    however, this applies only to the surgical fees. the doctor can charge extra for seeing the patient on a daily basis till discharged from hosp.

    there are no fixed charges for the hospital portion,eg. they can charge RM1 for a piece of gauze, or even RM5. that depends on "market forces."

    usually, patients complain that the total bill is exorbitant, but if they scrutinise the charges, it will be evident that the doctors' portion
    (which is already regulated) is far less than the hospital's portion (which is NOT regulated). check out what the hospital mean by "other" and "miscellaneous charges" & DEMAND to know what these consist of. it's the patient's right to know what they are paying for.

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  13. I got that with my dad's bypass too recently.. Just because we were willing to pay cash, the procedure cost was cheaper by 30%, Hope your wife gets well soon and god bless!

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  14. really.... gosh! thats double standard and consumer gets the shit

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  15. Huhuhuhu... no wonder the medical insureance so expensive! Thanks to the private hospital!T-T

    Have a marvellous day Eugene!

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  16. Memang unfair but what to do all the while it is like this...we cannot do anything.

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  17. the insurance folks need to earn a living... thus, beware of their sweet talking.

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  18. thank you guys for commenting, appreciate it

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  19. Haiz. The hospitals take those who can afford insurance policies are people who have money.

    We need to have insurance policies to cover the medical costs and surgeries.

    Hospitals and insurance companies are making a profit from us, we are the one who's losing to these bloodsuckers.

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  20. i've never heard of this before... yes, it's so unfair. reading doc's comment, it is the hospital portion that is bumped up :-(

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