CONSOLIDATED MEDICAL BILLING

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Of course certain surgeries routinely require anesthesia. Many critical diagnostic procedures such as X-rays and CT scans are part of routine medical procedures. Why is it then, that these are billed separately as if you would willingly opt out of them, as if you can shop around for them separately? Why are these particular attendant services treated separately (and not others), like nursing services or the services of the primary doctor?

The answers given have more to do with the arbitrary territorial boundaries that providers of these services have carved out for themselves over the years. But when a patient seeks a medical service for a chief complaint, these services are coordinated by a receiving hospital or provider, who then assembles these services with zero patient input. That receiving hospital or provider can (and should) also coordinate billing.

Let’s say you are admitted for a routine medical procedure – and by “routine” I mean an uncomplicated procedure that is done millions of times a year, maybe even several times a day by the hospital or provider you are seeing - you then receive a bill weeks (or months) later for that service. Let’s say it is a laparoscopic appendectomy. You get a bill from the hospital. It is a big bill. And because you do not have Medicare for All, you pay that big bill (maybe budgeting for it), and if you are like most Americans you plan and scrimp where you can to make ends meet. And then – surprise! - you get another bill and another and yet another. It’s all a mystery; it’s all a surprise. It’s all unnecessary.

It can all be consolidated into one bill. And it should happen this way.

These instances are not the biggest problem in our health care system in the US, but these problems certainly ARE among the ones which can be easily solved by an act of the Maine Legislature. And it would be one less headache, one less source of stress, and this alone could be of benefit to your health.

See Eben Rose Webpage: https://www.ebenrose.com/
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