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Comment by bitwize | Hacker News Reader

A lot of doctors are willing to cut their rates if you're willing to pay cash for the full amount. It's the paperwork that inflates insurance costs. I'm sure AI will cut through that and make it less a problem though. /s

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Beware that some providers are in contracts prohibiting them from taking cash payments if they know a patient is covered by the contracting insurance carrier. I don't know the specifics of the business justification for these terms but they do exist.

I've had providers tell me they'd have been happy to charge me less, making less than their insurance reimbursement, but not have to mess w/ billing my insurance, but they were unable because their contract with my insurer did not allow it.

>A lot of doctors are willing to cut their rates if you're willing to pay cash for the full amount

Are pennies okay? Sorry, they're not rolled. Just let me know if it's not enough.

If you're willing to pay cash?

This sounds more like tax evasion than paperwork avoidance.

It also means not paying credit card fees, not having to chase down bounced checks, etc. Cash means the money is there, which has value.

When I "pay cash" for a medical procedure it's actually with a credit card.

Just means I'm paying them directly instead of making them deal with my insurance.

"Paying cash" doesn't mean literally that in this context. Cash, credit card, check... "Paying cash" just means paying directly without involving insurance.

Could be that. Could be they don't want to pay 3% to a middle.

I mean pay 100% of the cost yourself rather than relying on insurance. You can use a bank card or credit card.

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