Could DJs operate like Medical facilities, and send bills after service?

$362 is a bargain .. When I had hernia surgery, the itemized bill had almost $8000 for sleeping off the anesthetic for 1hr in the recovery room. No IV, no nothing .. just a bed.

steve149 said:

$362 is a bargain .. When I had hernia surgery, the itemized bill had almost $8000 for sleeping off the anesthetic for 1hr in the recovery room. No IV, no nothing .. just a bed.

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Makes me glad I live in Canada lol

I don't know much about medical insurance but I think I would be fighting with the insurance company over that one. If Xrays and a couple of pills aren't covered what is?

DJ Ricky B said:

WTH? What kind of Anesthetic were they using? If $8,000 was just for that, what was the cost of the surgery?

Also, did your insurance cover that?

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The surgery was billed by the doctor (about $3500). The total hospital portion was nearly $16K. My copay was 20%, so it cost me a total of $4K out of pocket.

The pricing is merely a way to pad the bill. My guess is the total expected $$s was in the range of $6-$7K (doctor and hospital), so each pads the tab, I pay the 20% and insurance probably reimburses the remainder at some agreed to rate. But by bumping the total to $20K, MY portion makes up for what the insurance won't cover.

THAT is what the health care reform should have focused on ....

And not sure in Canada it's any cheaper in the long run .. premiums are most likely higher and the net net is probably similar.

I think $362 is pretty reasonable. About 10 years ago I paid more than that at a Veterinarian for pretty much the same service you had for a cat I had...

I'm pretty left leaning but I got to say Obama Care was a big disappointment. He talked about health care reform but this plan isn't it's insurance reform. Maybe I didn't understand it from the start or maybe this is the watered down congressional version but either way I suspect it's a good screwing for the middle class while the rich and poor walk away scott free

steve149 said:

And not sure in Canada it's any cheaper in the long run .. premiums are most likely higher and the net net is probably similar.

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At one time that may have been true Steve but I don't think it's that far away anymore. Your taxes are equal to or higher in alot of cases to ours now. Admittedly you have a more instant service especially for elective services but I think between your taxes and insurance premiums and co-pays you guys might actually pay a little more than we do in the long run.

The US government pays more per capita than ANY other country in the world for health care yet no one is entitled to free healthcare

Imo, $362 is cheap for that. Also, as far as I recall, when you sign in, the forms you sign say that you acknowledge that if the insurance does not pay, you will. We had a friend fall off his roof in the winter time and was medevac'd to Baltimore Shock / Trauma on Trooper 3. The flight alone, $8,000.00 - not covered by insurance.

Jeff Romard said:

I don't know much about medical insurance but I think I would be fighting with the insurance company over that one. If Xrays and a couple of pills aren't covered what is?

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In a PCP plan, sometimes the Ins companies will fight over you going to see your primary care physician first. (if that's what he has). How the Ins Co gets to decide what is or is not an important medical issue is beyond me.

I also don't think ObamaCare did anything to help anything .. and instead made / will make things worse. You don't honestly believe that the Ins Co actually pays the amount in question, do you? They're the biggest wheeler dealers around. It doesn't cost $20.00 for a cup of juice either .. nor do they get paid that much for it.

ittigger said:

In a PCP plan, sometimes the Ins companies will fight over you going to see your primary care physician first. (if that's what he has). How the Ins Co gets to decide what is or is not an important medical issue is beyond me.

I also don't think ObamaCare did anything to help anything .. and made / will make things worse. You don't honestly believe that the Ins Co actually pays the amount in question, do you? They're the biggest wheeler dealers around. It doesn't cost $20.00 for a cup of juice either .. nor do they get paid that much for it.

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I figure 1/10 to 1/20 of what the bill is

Flip side of this discussion - one of the many reasons Dr's charge as much as they do, have you seen how much it costs to become a Dr or to run a Dr office / hospital? These costs are one of the reasons many Dr's office have threatened to close once OC comes to fruition. Under OC, these offices will be 'losing' money.

DJ Ricky B said:

Any one who is employed with a long standing company that has awesome health insurance that the company has carried over for years and years is lucky!

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Just wait til you see what happens under ACA with part time employees. If I recall, something about part time employees that work more than 20 hours have to have more money in their check to buy medical insurance.

DJ Ricky B said:

I think $8,000 for a helicopter ride was also absurd. I can get a 30 minute helicopter tour in the summer time out in OC for like $265. ...You add in the costs of life saving professionals, medicines while on board, and higher cost of a medivac...I can see $2,000 - $2,500 being the cost in such a situation. $8,000....Perhaps taking advantage of the person? Sounds like greed to me. Not health care, and reasonable emergency service.

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Maybe, maybe not. I wasn't there and don't know. I do know that if you're medevac'd out, they're coming to you (from their base), picking you up, taking you to the hospital and then returning to base. For the flight around OC, you drive to the chopper, which is already there waiting .. and returning to the same location. They want customers. Not sure if Trooper 3 'wants' or 'needs' medevac customers in order to stay running. If Trooper 3 is on site, it's usually something serious.

I'm related to the one that fell off Sugarloaf the other week - Trooper 3 also came to get him - winched him up in a basket. I wonder what that cost will be.

Asking the OC chopper to come to your house immediately and get you, then take you on a tour, drop you off at a separate location, then return to its base, would likely result in a much larger cost - imo, quite a bit higher than $2000-$2500.

DJ Ricky B said:

I just got a ridiculous bill in the mail from a Patient First Center. I went there when my back went out on me and they had some X-Rays done of my back, and gave me 800 mg IB Profin, and some Muscle Relaxers. I paid a $35 co pay at the time.

Anyway, they sent me a bill stating Primary Insurance "No Ins Co Resp" Alert. I guess my insurance has decided to reject the bill and put it towards my $5,000 deductible.

The bill is for $362, and it doesn't line item anything as to why the bill is that high. I'm going to call them and get a line item bill to figure this out. I think $362 for a couple quick xrays and a Doctor seeing me for 5 minutes is absurd. Especially since I was not told what the cost would be up front, and I didn't agree to pay this sort of price before having services rendered. I certainly didn't sign any agreement to pay!


As a DJ, could we work and provide services without the customer knowing the costs, then just send them a ridiculous bill 2 months later in the mail expecting them to pay it?

Also, maybe this is the precise reason why the cost of medicare is out of control. $362 to see a Doctor briefly, get looked at, and a couple xrays done? Crazy!

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Often times there is a self pay discount. Before I had insurance, my ER bill was literally cut in half by a "self pay" discount. They billed me for over 8k (maybe 10k it's been a while) to run IV antibiotics for an hour. With the discount it came down to 4k. I'm not proud to say this but they still didn't get a dime. Another swift kick in the ass was the physician billed me separately for nearly $400! All I seen him for was exactly 3 minutes. He looked at my leg asked me two questions and barked orders at the nurse. Don't get me wrong it quite possibly saved my leg and I am very thankful for that. The diagnostic services and antibiotics were provided me with the hospital knowing statistically I was unlikely to pay.

Back on topic. I don't think post-pay is a good idea for the DJ business unless you're dealing with corporate clients. It gives the client the option of a) finding an excuse not to pay (You didn't play my song!) or just not paying because they blew all their money on the honeymoon. I'd guess you'd spend a significant amount of time chasing accounts receivable vs. the current industry standard of no pay no play.

DJ Ricky B said:

I think $8,000 for a helicopter ride was also absurd. I can get a 30 minute helicopter tour in the summer time out in OC for like $265. ...You add in the costs of life saving professionals, medicines while on board, and higher cost of a medivac...I can see $2,000 - $2,500 being the cost in such a situation. $8,000....Perhaps taking advantage of the person? Sounds like greed to me. Not health care, and reasonable emergency service.

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Agreed. I love that a lot of medical seems to be billed as "we could've been doing this". My ex was Medivaced out of a local hospital as a precaution after a car accident as she was a transplant recipient. I seen the bill 12k for 33 miles 'as the crow flies'. Yeah, they could've been resuscitating her, pumping her full of drugs, etc but they weren't. It was simply a transport flight. She was knocked out before they left the hospital all the medics were doing is monitoring her vitals.

How do you bill based on what you could have been doing? It makes absolutely no sense.

ittigger said:

In a PCP plan, sometimes the Ins companies will fight over you going to see your primary care physician first. (if that's what he has). How the Ins Co gets to decide what is or is not an important medical issue is beyond me.

I also don't think ObamaCare did anything to help anything .. and instead made / will make things worse. You don't honestly believe that the Ins Co actually pays the amount in question, do you? They're the biggest wheeler dealers around. It doesn't cost $20.00 for a cup of juice either .. nor do they get paid that much for it.

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I seen this in action recently. I've been going back and fourth for 'oral surgery'. I'm getting teeth pulled why the hell I need a surgeon to do it is beyond me. Anyhow, I've been going to this dentist err..oral surgeon since I'm a kid. I'm very comfortable with the guy. Before I had insurance if I went in to get a tooth pulled (which I'd only do as last resort) it was $250 per tooth. Now, I have insurance and they only will only pay $50 per tooth. Guess what he's pulling my teeth for? $50 a pop including X Rays

Keep in mind I'm an easy patient. I don't get put to sleep so there's no 'pre-op', no heart monitor, etc. It's numbing gel, a shot of Novocain, and he gets to work with the shoehorn looking thing. In most cases he waits longer for the Novocain to kick in than he does to pull the tooth.

I mentioned to him back when I was a cash patient that since I'm an 'easy' patient could he cut me a break on the price or at least do a payment plan with me. No dice.

"Obamacare" has helped people like me. I could never afford insurance in the private marketplace which led to me doing the bare minimum to stay relatively healthy (BP meds and blood thinners). No preventative care which is part of the reason I'm in the process of getting 7 teeth yanked. I would've went to a dentist had I had insurance or it been affordable.

ittigger said:

Flip side of this discussion - one of the many reasons Dr's charge as much as they do, have you seen how much it costs to become a Dr or to run a Dr office / hospital? These costs are one of the reasons many Dr's office have threatened to close once OC comes to fruition. Under OC, these offices will be 'losing' money.

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The first thing that has to happen is malpractice suits need to be capped then insurance premiums will go way down which will bring the cost of doing business as a doctor down and thus in theory the cost to the insurance co or patient down.


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Sorry to triple post the messed up state of medicine in America is a passion of mine.