Comments on: Dear Doctor: Here is half your money, take it or leave it

By: Selena Horner

Selena Horner — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:42:03 +0000

You may not know all of the story. What if… what if the patient had no insurance coverage for physician office visits? We all know that charges are set at a high percentage above insurance fee schedules. We also know physicians participate and accept contracts with allowed amounts that are substantially lower than the submitted charges. Since we know this is the case, is it reasonable to expect a patient with no benefit coverage for an office visit to pay the full price when insurance companies do not?

By: Nasime

Nasime — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:15:36 +0000

I received a notice similar to this patient and it happened to be at exactly the same time I went to the repair shop and paid $600 to replace a pair of brake pads for my car. I thought about paying the attendant $300 and letting him know that the brake job really isn’t worth more. You think he would have gone for it?
The short of it is I paid the full price and informed my patient that she should too.

By: Barbara Boucher, PT, PhD

Barbara Boucher, PT, PhD — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:05:44 +0000

And then there is no response at all. Specifically, I could not get ANY money out of the state’s Medicaid intermediary for my services without quadruple (or more) times the time of the treatment provided. Thanks for the warning.

By: Chris P

Chris P — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:22:23 +0000

This is a conundrum that’s been faced in the design industry for a long time – people want to pay only for the effort you put in for them, not in the effort you’ve made in the past to acquire the skills used in the effort for them.

Ultimately, people are paying for your knowledge and skill, not simply your effort. Don’t sell yourself short; you’re more than worth it.