Originally Posted by stockrex
Originally Posted by spackard
I think all costs included was $5k per eye (and there are a lot of costs).
My guy doesn't take insurance; you pay out of your pocket but they will help you fill out forms if you want to send them to your insurance company.
Wow, was he considered out of network by insurance?
It's a long story, but the office administrator did some calculations one month and found the doctor was net about $30 a patient, and dealing with insurance was harder and harder. They decided they had to drop all insurance
companies and make a go on a cash-only basis. Happened in 2010, if I recall correctly.
I signed an acknowledgment that said I'm responsible for the bills, that any reimbursement I want from my insurance
is something I'm responsible for handling.
Plus side for me is I know exactly how much everything involved with his office is going to cost. Pay once, up-front, his cost.
He's a resident at a hospital where he performs the surgery. Hospital's costs are probably $3k of the $5k, and bills trickle in (anesthetists are the slowest, takes about 6 months to get their bill).
Insurance treats him as out-of-network (he's not a member of any insurance network).
They still send me the itemized statement, claiming to "discount" his prices by some fictitious amount,
then claim they reimburse 50% of that discounted amount. So, insurance probably only reimburses 30% of his costs.
They do better on the hospital in theory, because the hospital inflates, insurance deflates, then reimburses at 80%.
He's a good doctor; travels to different countries to teach others his technique.
Go at the right time of day and you can hear the kids shouting karate yells from the suite next to him.
So, a modest office in a good community. I was referred to him from an optometrist in a Costco.
Didn't seem fair to me the guy who's got the skill only netted $30 per patient.