An outrageous clinic bill foiled—sort of

In response to my posts about hospital fraud, a friend of a friend tells this story:

“When we were camping about seven years ago, I became ill (I think it was the beginning of COPD). I went to an emergency clinic in Nevada—the closest place around. I was there for less than 24 hours. During that period every doctor who was involved in that clinic must have come and done ‘something’ (they knew I had Kaiser Medical coverage). The bill was $38,000.00. GASP! 

Of course, I was stunned and took the bill to Kaiser and asked them to translate it for me. Evidently this was nothing new for them. They took the bill, knocked it down to $18,000.00, paid the clinic and I paid $50.00.  What a scam! Moral to this story: NEVER GO TO A CLINIC OUT OF STATE UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO DIE!”

So, let me see if I got this right: Kaiser gets outrageous $38,000 bill from clinic in Nevada. “Whoa,” says Kaiser, “$38,000 is too much! We’ll knock off $20,000 and pay you $18,000.” Clinic says, “OK. Whatever." 

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