There is a story that circulated last week on Twitter that a guy enrolled himself on healthcare.gov but the welcome letter that came was addressed to his dog, Baxter. Apparently they mistook his password for his name.
That got me thinking…
Two months ago I had a doctor’s appointment and I had to take my cat (a good old guy) to the vet. My doctor is phenomenal. He works his tail off. I received excellent care but he quickly moved on to the next patient. He seemed to be maxed out with time and the demands on him from his medical practice.
My veterinarian is also a phenomenal person. The visit for the cat took approximately the same amount of time. Yet the vet was more relaxed and seems to have more capacity in his practice.
The vet bill was $63 bucks cash.
The doctor’s office filed the claim through my insurance plan and it was knocked down from $120 to $65 bucks. I paid the $65 bucks to my doctor’s office about 45 days AFTER the date of my appointment.
As I read about how physicians are creating concierge practices, operating outside insurance and considering leaving Medicare, I can’t help but think of those two visits.
I wonder if there is a way to make low dollar costs in healthcare more transparent and efficient. Maybe even the ACA could move in this direction instead of focusing on low copay plans in most of the advertising.
I wonder why we, as a society, seem to be more accepting to pay cash for a vet visit but less likely to be responsible for the full cost of a routine doctor’s office visit — when often they net out to roughly the same cost.
Here is a recent article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal about concierge medicine, titled Pros and Cons of Concierge Medicine.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at BBG!