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Comment by tdeck | Hacker News Reader

What I'm failing to understand in your argument is how this relates to the scheduled end time for the surgery which presumably can be different from the actual end time. If X hours are planned and it takes X+2 hours, who pays for the 2 hours? If the insurance doesn't pay for it, what does the out of pocket maximum have to do with it? Are the anaesthesiologists just legally compelled to finish the procedure without billing for the extra time? If so, what incentive does this create vs. simply negotiating down the rate?

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None of this has anything to do with what's actually happening in the OR. The most common surgery performed in the US is a laparoscopic appendectomy. The low end of the average cost of that appendectomy as an outpatient procedure significantly exceeds out-of-pocket caps for insurance.

* This is not money you were ever going to pay.

* There is no such thing as cutting anesthesia off early because of a billing dispute.

You are getting rolled by a professional trade group for some of the most highly compensated, well-off people in the American economy. We might just as well take up arms against the rapacious costs of M&A litigation in the finance industry.

I have no personal connection to this issue at all apart from living in the US. Rather than fixating on your perception that I do, maybe you could contribute to the discussion by actually answering any of the questions I raised in your reply to my comment?

I just answered your question directly.

"This is not money you were ever going to pay."

I don't see why. Don't out-of-pocket maximums only apply to covered care?

Is that what happens when Medicare, which pays for the overwhelming majority of all surgeries, denies anesthesiology bills exceeding CMS limits? Seniors just pay for their own anesthesia? No.

I honestly don't know, but if not I would like to understand why.

Yes you do know! Do you read lots of stories about seniors being stiffed with huge anesthesia bills? No. Because that doesn't happen!

Okay, but granting that, why?

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