Replying to a message of JIM WELLER to BOB ACKLEY:

 BA>> In 2004 I spent 3 days in a hospital and the bill was
 BA>> $49,000 Tricare - which I call Medicare for the military -
 BA>> paid a total of about $18,000 of all of that and the
 BA>> providers wrote off the rest

 JW> Interesting. Here, the total cost would have been lower and
 JW> would have been covered 100%, with my share being zippo.

My share was a whopping $33.00.

 JW> So do providers ever attempt to collect the shortfall from
 JW> the patient? I read about medically caused bankrupcies...

Insofar as Medicare is concerned, it is against the law for providers
to bill patients (or their families) for charges Medicare doesn't pay.

Insofar as Tricare is concerned the provider signs a contract with
Tricare to accept whatever Tricare decides to pay as payment in full -
excluding contractual deductibles and co-pays.  I believe that's the
case for most big insurors.  I have noted an item on the final statement
of medical bills called "contractual adjustment," which is what the insuror
didn't pay and I'm not responsible for; it's usually between 1/3 and 1/2 of
the bill as presented but sometimes it's more.

Those bankruptcies are generally due to somebody without sufficient insurance
being hit by an accident or other expensive medical problem.  Back in 1948
my mother contracted polio and was in the (county owned) hospital for three
years, six months of which were in an iron lung.  My dad had very good
insurance at the time, and it still took until about 1961 to get all of the
hospital and doctor bills that his insurance didn't pay paid off, but paid off
they were (of course in those days providers didn't add monthly interest and
finance charges to the amount of the bill).

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