Out of pocket expenses - share our stories
Greetings to all network members. I guess we have all received an email from BCNA encouraging us to take part in a survey conducted by the Consumers Health Forum - to find out more about 'out of pock...
Forum Discussion
I Just remembered - when my husband had his stomach cancer surgery back in 2010 - we paid virtually nothing - and he was in North Shore Private for 10 days, as well as many scans, tests, bloods etc, etc, etc - maybe there was the odd 'out of pocket' bits - but nowhere near as many as my procedure has had!
I guess I 'had' the opportunity of going Public right from the start - but wasn't really 'up to' phoning around myself (or NIB) & my other half (now confirmed with moderately severe dementia and about to lose his drivers licence .... ) couldn't have done it .... and there would have been a wait if I went public, even for the surgeon I went with.
I was in a Private Hospital and I had a shared room (which was still OK with me.) I WAS given a quote AHEAD of the surgery - but didn't fully understand the costing part of it - I was still expecting NIB to contribute more ..... they only kicked in with a few hundred dollars of the whole surgery total of about $4500 - which was nullified as they charged me about $300+ to ATTEND that hospital (on top of the hospital costs which they paid fully.) Medicare paid out about $1000 towards the surgery & associated costs. I was totally surprised all the pathology wasn't covered by either.
I can't see how they can call it Private Health Insurance when it ISN'T!! False Advertising!! I could also call it Fraud!!
I guess I 'had' the opportunity of going Public right from the start - but wasn't really 'up to' phoning around myself (or NIB) & my other half (now confirmed with moderately severe dementia and about to lose his drivers licence .... ) couldn't have done it .... and there would have been a wait if I went public, even for the surgeon I went with.
I was in a Private Hospital and I had a shared room (which was still OK with me.) I WAS given a quote AHEAD of the surgery - but didn't fully understand the costing part of it - I was still expecting NIB to contribute more ..... they only kicked in with a few hundred dollars of the whole surgery total of about $4500 - which was nullified as they charged me about $300+ to ATTEND that hospital (on top of the hospital costs which they paid fully.) Medicare paid out about $1000 towards the surgery & associated costs. I was totally surprised all the pathology wasn't covered by either.
I can't see how they can call it Private Health Insurance when it ISN'T!! False Advertising!! I could also call it Fraud!!