The continuing saga of Hoboken University Medical Center

[camwyn]

Got home from work yesterday. Had a bill from HUMC waiting for me, again for $5500. Bright side: it was dated May 9th, the same day Cigna had told me they were going to send the HUMC documents to the claims department and handle things, so I assume that the paper bill went out the door at HUMC billing before Cigna got hold of them.

There is no way in hell I am going to pay these people $5500 for this. None. Cigna had better take care of this like they said.

Fun note: according to the New York Times, Bayonne Medical Center in Bayonne, NJ has the highest billing rates in the United States, routinely billing for common hospital procedures at four times the national average, if not even more. They went bankrupt in 2007 and the investor group that bought them has since turned them profitable by means of billing at these insane rates.

It's the same goddamn investor group that owns Hoboken University Medical Center.

Bastards.

Comments

[thewickedlady]

FUCKHEADS.

[camwyn]

I cannot call them dicks, because there are perfectly good uses for dicks, and I cannot call them assholes, because there are perfectly good uses for assholes. When it comes to finding a term that fully expresses how disgusted I am with these people... The people who set the billing rates at this place are a bunch of goddamn coal mining company executives.

[lienne]

*standing ovation*

[laudre]

Given my own sports franchise-related biases, I am inclined to suspect that they root for the Yankees, the Cowboys, the Patriots, the Detroit Red Wings, and, worst of all, Manchester United.

More seriously, while a glance at the first page doesn't show a relevant article, the problems of pricing in the US health care system are a not-infrequent topic at the only public health economics blog I'm aware of, the Incidental Economist.