Hacker News Reader

Comment by graedus | Hacker News Reader

Urgent care might be a good option where it's available. Even here though, I've been told I just need to pay my copay, which I did up front, then been billed a couple months later for some additional amount. I was lucky that the amount wasn't high so I just paid it rather than dig in, but it's very unclear how or why I was billed extra. This happens all the time.

View on HN

If you have a deductible you’ll be on the hook for the whole cost which could be $100-150. The bill would need to round trip to the insurance company first.

In contrast if you have not met your deductible and say you’re paying cash, it’s often cheaper as the cash price is something like $75.

I got in an argument once at an urgent care on this topic. I asked how much they would bill my insurance (“We can’t/won’t tell you) vs not having insurance and paying cash price ($75). They then proceeded to insist I give them my insurance information as “Sir- you must use your insurance. That’s illegal!”.

I had a hospital pull this on me when I was looking to get something done. They said we can't get the cash price because you can only get that if you don't have insurance, even if you know your insurance doesn't cover it, and it's illegal to not have insurance so we must have it, so no cash price.

Talking to people in the healthcare field about billing and money can make people murderous, logic, chain of reasoning, the English language is all in a state of flux.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com