Insurance rip offs

I had to get some junk yesterday at the doctors. A couple braces.
The guy said do you want us to bill insurance or do you want to pay and get a cash discount? What's the discount I ask, expecting to hear 20% off. The price went from 169.00 to 99.00!
Can you believe that? No wonder insurance rates are so high!
I consider that racketeering!


The doctors office charges you what? 50 to 70 bucks for an appointment. Yet they are only paid 25 or 30 as reimbursement by insurance.
I consider that conspiracy to commit fraud on the consumer!
If the consumer got those kinds of prices there would be less need for insurance.

Well, doctors are ripping off insurance companies too. Last Saturday, me and the boys went in for our 6 month teeth cleaning. We have no problems but just get teeth cleaned because its preventive maintenance and free as we have dental insurance thru Metlife.

The first thing the dentist does is take "routine" X-rays for all of us and then cleans the teeth. He says "just in case". They bill the Insurance Company $120 per person for this. Had I just gone in and got teeth cleaned and told then I have no insurance, they charge $45. Now, this $120 is what the insurance company pays not what the dentist bills. And we do this twice a year. Just routine cleaning and the insurance pays him $240 per person for essentially 15 minutes work.

As soon as the doctors find out you have insurance, they come up with all sorts of new things to check and charge the Insurance for. Its just a huge racket.

The whole doctor-insurance link is driving up insurance costs through the roof.

[M_Six]

You're not seeing the other side of this. The HMOs and insurance companies have ridiculously low rates they pay doctors and dentists. The docs then charge higher amounts to the insurance companies so they get a higher percentage of what they really think it should cost. If a doctor tells an HMO procedure X costs $500, the HMO says fine, here's $250. The doctor loses out. So the docs charge the HMO $750 and get back maybe $350.

Sometime ask your insurance company to see what the doctor billed and what the insurance company paid. You're entitled to that. You'll be surprised how little of what the docs charge that they actually get paid.

M_Six, you are absolutely correct. In fact my insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, sends me a statement showing what the doctor bills and what he got paid.

In cases where the doctors get 100% reimbursement, like preventive stuff, they hit the insurance for as much as they can.

As Surreal says its a racket and a nexus exists between doctors and insurance companies.

Originally posted by M_Six
You're not seeing the other side of this.

Um I think I am. My 2nd paragraph was about how low the doctor bill is to the Insurance company and perhaps if we got a better price Insurance companies that are dictating the quality of medicine we get wouldn't be as needed...


seems a catch 22 in a way. but also seems that the difference in prices is discouraging..