Shit!
Fwiw, i get similar things done via the patient portal for free. Although a friend did pay something like that to get a paxlovid prescription after self-diagnosing with covid. His was also a “telehealth” visit, that was mostly filling out a form and maybe 2 minutes talking to a nurse. (So you see two red lines on your covid test?)
Jesus. That’s what I pay for an out of network visit with my doctor, in his office, with a full checkup, ECG, the ol’ gloved hand exam, and extended conversation about my health. Tele-health is supposed to be cheap and convenient.
The school health insurance plan for international students seems to be a racket.
Collect $3600 a year for a catastrophic plan that covers a young, largely healthy population, negotiate “in-network” fees with providers that are outrageous and because of the high deductible are paid by the patient not the insurer.
I don’t know what coverage would be like in case of a serious high-dollar issue, but I’m betting it would be ruinous to the student and family.
Unsurprisingly the health insurance provider is United Healthcare.
Sorry for the late bump. The dominant health care provider in my area has dumped both United Healthcare (my sole choice in my companies retirement health plan) and Cigna from their accepted Medicare Advantage plans.
I assumed that it was a money fight (and a 60-40 split (ins. comany vs health plan) on who was being the asshole), but that Cigna nugget makes it fairly clear why they got dropped.
I had Cigna a long time ago. Thank goodness I don’t anymore. We’re on Regence Blue Shield, so far (fingers crossed) we haven’t had trouble with providers.
I too had Cigna a long time ago. They routinely denied valid claims with no explanation, just “denied”. That only got resolved when my employer’s benefits department got involved (“state law requires that you cover these services”). Shortly after my employer dropped Cigna in favor of Anthem Blue Cross, who’ve been fine.
I am very pleased that in my last few months with Cigna we made them pay for a broken leg and a birth (unrelated events).
Just dropping this here…
Honestly, i think part of it is that if you get sick enough to lose your job, both your credit score and your risk of death increase. But I’m certain that the larger factor is that people with money trouble get less and less-good care in the US.
Well, I went six months without a reason to bitch about this, during which time I had a 100% covered colonoscopy which ended up costing me $700+ because, of course.
I have a mole on my face, it became a bump and is now a small hanging tag. My PCP is concerned about it. Wanted it removed and biopsied. Went through the pre-approval process. It seems that if the biopsy comes out negative it will be considered cosmetic and not covered at all. Will not even benefit from the negotiated rates (which are 75% to 90% below the rack rate).
My friend, a pediatrician, suggested I get this done at a cosmetic surgery place that only takes patient pay, no insurance. It will be a few hundred dollars, including the biopsy. It could be thousands if I go through my hospital affiliated PCP’s practice.
Huh, I’ve had a couple of bumps removed, although none on my face. Only one came back with anything in the biopsy (that one was pre -cancerous, so no follow-up. The others were “scar tissue” and “nothing to see here”.) They were all billed as medical procedures, not cosmetic.
I haven’t seen the pre approval response myself. I’m talking to the medical practice’s business office. To say that they don’t trade in straight answers would be an understatement.
My doctor keeps moving from practice to practice to escape the corporatization of healthcare but the last two practices he moved to were promptly gobbled up by the same corporate entity as the first one.
Me, too.
You might want to call the insurance company yourself - I was having a sonogram and was told at the radiology center that many insurance companies don’t cover it for the reason I was having it. I asked how much self-pay would be if they tried the insurance and they didn’t cover it - they couldn’t tell me and said the insurance company would determine that , which sounded bizarre to me. After a few phone calls, it turned out that the contract with my insurance company apparently required them to charge me only the negotiated rate if it wasn’t covered , which they wouldn’t know until the submitted the claim.
Oh, and everytime I’ve had a bump removed, it was covered as a medical procedure. But they weren’t being removed for looks - one was on my eyelid and obstructed my vision a bit and the other one was frequently irritated ( I guess by clothing) and painful.
I got laid off in November 2024. I elected to use COBRA in 2025 as I delayed my severance (a non trivial sum) and figured my income would be too high for any assistance. I continued into 2026 due to procrastination. I’m looking at the marketplace, my main issue is figuring out networks. I live in a rural MN county (Houston), and my current provider is in across the river in Wisconsin (Gundersen). Gundersen does have MN locations (including in my city), but the semi-big campus is 20 miles away (meanwhile, the main WI campus is ~7 miles away)
If I do searches it will show some doctors as in-network, but further investigation shows that they are not. Doesn’t help that each provider has a dozen similarly named plans…
Brian