This is a real story of one of my esteemed friend:
My dad suffers from COPD (chronic lungs failure) probably due to smoking during his younger days.
Invariably every month he gets admitted to hospital for 3-5 days, when he suffers from congestion and breathlessness. In the hospital they give him oxygen, nebulization (bronchodilators) and some antibiotic to prevent any infection.
I admitted him thrice to Manipal. First time in Jan 2007, I did it by cash payment and the bill was 9000 for 5 days.
Second time in Dec 2007, I used the TTK “cashless” method and the bill was 21000 for 5 days.
Third time Feb 2008 I again used TTK “cashless” and the bill is 30000 for 4 days.
For all the above cases, symptoms/ailment/treatment was exactly same but the cost was ever increasing. The hospital guys keep asking the same question many times “Does your insurance have enough limit?”
Most probably TTK will get this today’s bill of 30K, approved. The hospital gains, TTK also gains, Insurance Co. loses money and we end up paying more premium. It increased by almost 4-5K since last year, because TTK said that claims have been increasing in our company.
BTW its not just Manipal hospital, The “shitty” nursing home where my dad gets regularly admitted in Kolkata, also tripled their bill amount after they learned that we have insurance.
9 replies on “Looting public money (Health Insurance)”
I agree and this has happened to me too. The cashless insurance I have has a condition .. However the hospital has altered the bill and gave me an a/c room stating that no other room is available.
Also once ma cousin had fever and was admitted. All kinds of test was done and finally he was taken to Xray. Upon curisity he asked why xray is taken?.. upon which the nurse started shouting “why do u care, u have insurance right !!!!”
!!!!!
Sorry for the grammatical error. I was in a hurry. 🙂
This is the same reason why medical services are so damn expensive in the so called ‘developed’ nations and sadly, its slowly catching up in India as well. Looks like the once affordable treatments would also become non-reachable for the common man. This is what I feared when ‘medical insurance’ was being projected (when it was just catching up in India) as a ‘good thing’ in India. I remember reading in one of the blogs where the blogger had posted about his experience with a dentist in US. He had gone for dental cleaning which the dentist has completed in 20 mins. Realising that such an process takens almost an hour or so in India, he asked the dentist if it was done for which the dentist quipped : “What do you expect for a $20 premium?”. Sad state of affairs isnt it?
Corporate hospitals bill you to the bones whether you have insurance or not. They often bill unfairly, cheating the patient, with imaginary medicines, consumables, etc. billed. You have no way of questioning them.
They have highly paid and trained executives to handle difficult customers.
Doctors who work in such hospitals know this, and swallow their disgust. I ventilate laterally…
Actually insurance companies are here to make money… if the hospital bills them through the nose, then they increase the premium.. so indirectly the inflated bill comes from our own pocket….
what i was disgusted was that medicine is a noble profession.. and such practices make them as honorable as robbers.
Inflated bills are just one of the issues.A friend of mine was kept for 3 extra days in the ICU because the hospital makes more money as ICU charges than in the room.The patient overheard the doctor discussing this with his colleague.Unnecessary tests and sometimes surgical procedures are performed on the patient in order to make extra bucks.
i wonder whether the doctors see us as someone whom they can heal or just moneybags?
Only as someone who they heal….
Just kidding!
Great post.