A comment

[wingriderz]

My Wife & I are truly blessed. Having said that we bolth have alot of health issuses. And I am truly thankful for my medicare. My comment being on a very limited budget, I know every one is working or retired. My Co pay for other than primary is $ 20.00 which is low for some. I don't have a problem paying a co pay to see a specialist. What I have a problem with is having a test they order and then have to pay another co pay a week later to get the result. Case in point doc was in for 90 seconds read sheet in hand and good to go. I can't help but wonder what charge they bill medicare for ? Btw if you don't follow up you don't get results of test.

 

[mstem]

Wife & I are on Medicare & our Dr. calls us with test results. At no charge.

 

[cybermgk]

My Wife & I are truly blessed. Having said that we bolth have alot of health issuses. And I am truly thankful for my medicare. My comment being on a very limited budget, I know every one is working or retired. My Co pay for other than primary is $ 20.00 which is low for some. I don't have a problem paying a co pay to see a specialist. What I have a problem with is having a test they order and then have to pay another co pay a week later to get the result. Case in point doc was in for 90 seconds read sheet in hand and good to go. I can't help but wonder what charge they bill medicare for ? Btw if you don't follow up you don't get results of test.

As pointed out above, many Drs will just call with results, or more so have staff call. The fact that your Dr doesn't and charges you a copay, means He/She is taking advantage of Medicare and their notoriously bad Fraud, Waste and Abuse prevention/monitoring. He/She is wasting our tax dollars for profit. If He/She is NOT charging Medicare, then they shouldn't be charging you.

I think I might call Medicare hotline and report it How to report Medicare fraud | Medicare.gov

It would be one thing, if there was treatment discussions needed, or similar, from the test results. But, there isn't.

 

[wingriderz]

Very good advice no treatment needed thankfully. This a test that primary wanted as a preventive. Give you anonther example tomroww I had to get get my yearly echo. No problem with that one as the cardoligist in not going to charge me two co pays. I will see him in February. But me having a mechanical heart valve I have to keep in check

 

[H Richard]

You should receive a Medicare Explanation Of Benefits for every service Medicare pays for. It usually takes a couple months after the service before you receive them, but it breaks down how much was billed, how much Medicare "allows" and how much Medicare actually paid and what your responsibility is. Check it out before you contact Medicare about any "fraud".

 

[jscheck]

Although not on medicare yet, my wife and I have had similar discussions. I think it's a money racket the feds probably need to look into. Just my opinion.

 

[Retired LTC USAR]

My doctors are affiliated with Baptist Health. I get an e-mail after each test. I then log into my portal and can see the results. I can also send messages to any of my doctors instead of having to call. It's a nice feature.

 

[fiasconva]

You may want to check and see if you doctor has a website that you can sign up for and get your test results, get prescriptions, renewed, etc. We have a site through our medical group so you may want to ask your dr if they have an online service like that. It's also free.

 

[sousana]

I'm a travelling Nurse Practitioner, and I'm also a 20 year retired US Navy Corpsman. If your on Medicare, you'll receive an explanation of benefits, plus, in this day and age of the interwebs, most if not all doctors have online access to medical charts. Check with your doctors and see if they do indeed have online access.

I receive my Primary care from Langley Air Force Base as I'm closer to them than Portsmouth Naval Hospital and LAFB 633 medical group uses Relay for it's online communications, Sentara and other hospitals use MyChart, or mycare is used.

As to billing, if you ever get a copy of your bill, you'll notice codes used, which can be looked up in the CPT and ICD manuals, the codes used will give you a more detailed fix on how billing is done in a medical office.

My dad recently spent 7 days in a local hospital, transferred from LAFB ER to a civilian hospital as they were unable to meet his care needs. When I got the bill, it was a whopping 38,543 plus another 1200.19 for a 2 day stay at a rehab facility.