craisler (imported) wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:58 pm Research on the hospital mentioned turned up some unflattering comments about the quality of the service there.

Hospitals in America can be snakepits. (See Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.) Especially...members of certain for-profit chains that have been known to cut the good leg off of diabetics leaving the gangrenous one intact.

You'd be better off in ANYBODY'S office, so do not take hospital care lightly. Make sure that you negotiate the price for services BEFORE you have them.

Otherwise, you will get to pay more than your typical insurance company.

No shit...

A-1

A-1 (imported) wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:39 pm Hospitals in America can be snakepits. (See Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.) Especially...members of certain for-profit chains that have been known to cut the good leg off of diabetics leaving the gangrenous one intact.

A-1

When I recently had minor surgery at a hospital, I had to write "YES" in ball point on the site of the incision. I guess it's an effort by the hospitals to cut down on such mistakes.

Just a sidelight on the insurance thing and hospitals:

Last summer, Auntie twisted her ankle badly and went to the ER thinking it might be broken. Over $3,000. Her neighbor, by chance, who was insured, had the same thing happen weeks later. Her bill? $1350 to the insurance carrier.

don't get me started. a proceedure we bill out at 2K that medicare pays 864 and most private pays are around 1200. if the patient has to pay a deductable it is (usually) 20% of the full amount not the negociated amount and we are the most reasonable and easiest to deal with in town.

I see lots of great advise on this thread, well done.

I think I remember Kimmel saying that for anything other then castration that many of us have had by him, it is done in a hospital.

So, cost is:

Kimmel, 6800

Nurse, anesthesiologist, nurse assistant, tech, operating room, hospital room, after care, drugs, everything you want, like a coke will be extra.

Its not the cost of the Doctor, but the cost of the Doctor and all the supporting staff.

Thats the price you want to know going in.

As for Dr. Kimmel, he is more than qualified.

River

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Mon Jun 06, 2005 6:20 am I see lots of great advise on this thread, well done.

I think I remember Kimmel saying that for anything other then castration that many of us have had by him, it is done in a hospital.

So, cost is:

Kimmel, 6800

Nurse, anesthesiologist, nurse assistant, tech, operating room, hospital room, after care, drugs, everything you want, like a coke will be extra.

Its not the cost of the Doctor, but the cost of the Doctor and all the supporting staff.

Thats the price you want to know going in.

As for Dr. Kimmel, he is more than qualified.

River

No, I asked. It will be $6800, plus whatever the Vicodin costs at the local pharma. It is not in the hospital. I don't know if Kimmel does any work out of a hospital.