Thanks for the congrats, but based on what I bolded above, I’m not sure you understood original post.
What happened was this: We went in for our first ultrasound for what we and everyone else believed was a single baby. this was at 11 weeks. The tech, about five seconds after applying the gel, said “Oh, it’s twins.” We all expressed our surprise. Then we proceeded with the ultrasound as normal. Then several weeks later found out that the ultrasound was being charged as two ultrasounds.
I can understand the justification in terms of there being two different sets of measurements etc., but it seems comical and maybe just a hint of shady that this double-charging occurs despite the absence of any clarification that it’s going to happen that way. We didn’t have the impression that we’d done two ultrasounds. We had the impression we’d done one ultrasound, during which we discovered two babies. Nothing happened to divest us of this misunderstanding til we actually got the bill and EoB.
B…b…b…but isn’t it the insurance companies with the huge negotiating power to force lower prices?
There’s something that American healthcare and health insurance industry doesn’t want Americans to realize:
Insurance companies get, in effect, a percentage commission on the services they mediate between provider and patient. They want the absolute value of that commission to be as large as possible. In other words, although they are the payer of medical bills, they benefit from developments which increase those bills.
Hey, I know! Throughout the pregnancy, the parents stall as much as they can on making payments, paying just enough along the way to keep the hospital from refusing to treat the mother further.
Then, after the kids are born, the mom’s out of the hospital, and everyone’s clearly healthy, the the parents file the papers for the kids’ bankruptcies!
Hmm, yeah that is kind of shady and I actually was wondering if that was the case when I posted. The tech certainly wouldn’t be doing a detailed exam at 11 weeks… just a few measurements usually (crown rump length, heart rate, maybe a BPD) and a quick look through visible anatomy. At my clinic it wouldn’t have been booked as a double, even. So yeah, I agree that being charged double for that is silly and especially so if you weren’t told before you were billed.
I just see so many misunderstandings about ultrasounds and obstetrical exams especially and I wanted to pop in with a little bit of my own perspective. Just wanted to clear some things up!
Technically, each hoof is like a finger, so that horse has four very talented fingers with enormous fingernails. Imagine the bill that shows up after she gets a mani-pedi.
