Question about Medicare.
Posted By: Spice on 2006-04-30
In Reply to:
I hope I'm posting on the right board, but here it goes. My elderly mother was in the hospital back in January and on Friday received a bill from a nephrologist who saw her briefly once and billed Medicare $375 for his in-hospital consultation. Medicare paid them $15.68, they "wrote down" $240.40 and the supplementary paid $3.92, and now they are billing her $115. This is the first time she has ever received a bill from anyone as her insurance has always paid. I keep thinking that they have used a wrong CPT code for their billing as it is beyond me that Medicare would only pay $15.68 for an in-hospital consultation. I will have to wrangle with these people tomorrow, but wanted to know if anyone had any opinions about this and feels like I do. I don't think this is her deductible amount as she had seen many physicians before him seeing her in the hospital. I know I will also have to call Medicare to see if in fact they are the ones that got their bill in first and this is in fact her yearly deductible, but as they say, knowledge is your best tool before someone tries to pull the "wool over your eyes."
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SE Medicare and SS are taken out, not fed tax.
I looked on the IRS website. You do get a SE W2 and then you can deduct business expenses to lower your fed tax, but you still are responsibile for fed tax yourself. I double checked at the IRS website.
yes..they are taking out for SS and Medicare...
a friend of mine said when she wasn't making that much money she had them withold an extra 10.00 for federal so i may have to do that...
Cuts in medicare and medicaid are about to take place
I have mentioned this but it was always deleted as I think the monitor thought I was talking politics.
There will be a marked decline in coverage for services to medicare and medicaid patients and I believe to offset this, medical facilities are finding ways to cut costs.
The cuts will be significant. You could do a Google search for Deficit Reduction Act. Radiology will be most severely hit, especially stand alone facilities.
Forgot to say this was for Medicare Supplemental Insurance (NM))
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Many physicians in my area don't want to take Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare
or other insurances because the insurance companies require a huge buydown of charges and then disallow quite a bit for being "above the reasonable amount."
For example, I had double insurance of Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Tricare when I had surgery. The bills totaled $15,000. Blue Cross knocked $5,000 off the physician's $7,800 bill, paid him $600 and left Tricare and me to deal with the $1,200 balance. Tricare wouldn't pay because they disallowed the amount as unreasonable, the physician's office forced me to make payments on it, and I had to fight just so I didn't owe them another $1,200. It was ridiculous that I had double insurance coverage and wound up owing anything. Meanwhile, the doctor didn't even get paid that much, and he did my presurgery appointments, the actual surgery, two postsurgery appointments to remove hardware, plus coordinating everything between cardiology, radiology, anesthesia, laboratory, surgery, and having special equipment trucked in from out of state.
If I had not had insurance at all, I would have had to pay the entire amount. I think it's crazy that noninsureds have to pay the full amount but insurance companies can disallow or buy down the amounts due. Anyway, you hit a big rant of mine. Shortly after I lost my Blue Cross coverage, my son needed to be seen but we couldn't find a provider to even take Tricare at all. So much for my husband serving his country and being away from his family in the line of duty. The doctors get rich and refuse to treat military personnel who fight for their freedom. Talk about a total lack of appreciation.
Your national is liable for SS and Medicare tax not you. They thinkyou are self employed. nm
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I've actually found Medicare very easy to deal with...
wouldn't dread the call. It will probably go better with Medicare than with the nephrologist.
Will I not get paid if the hospital isn't reimbursed with Medicare/Medicaid?
I was told by a coworker that California is in so much debt that I may not get a paycheck if CA goes bankrupt because the hospital I work for will not be getting subsidized any longer....
could this be true?
Yes, you're cranky. The docs may be instructed to do so to appease Medicare or other such entity.
x
Medicare is offering free installation of EMR to physicians and hospitals.
http://www.medscape.com/px/instantpollservlet/result?PollID=1502
If government is involved, it will be as screwed up as the Medicare medication program.
Heaven save us from all these wanna be kings that sit on top of the hill.
Not sure, I have deductions for federal income tax, SS tax, Medicare tax, and state income tax. ???
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