New Mexico hospital refuses to treat CANCER
patients unless they pay thousands up
front for lifesaving treatments
Daily Mail,
by
Cassidy Morrison
Original Article
Posted By: OhioNick,
6/5/2024 3:49:47 PM
Cancer patients are among the growing number of sick people across the country being asked to fork over thousands of dollars for treatments they hadn't yet received.
Nancy Skinner, 68, and nearly a dozen other cancer patients in Las Cruces, New Mexico, who say they were either denied care or required to pay out of pocket up front. [SNIP] Ms. Skinner’s doctor ordered a biopsy in 2022 to assess a growth on her leg, but the Memorial Medical Center denied her insurance and told her she had to pay $2,000 or she would not get a potentially lifesaving procedure. She had to take out a bank loan.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/5/2024 4:02:53 PM (No. 1731842)
Formerly non-profit hospital bought by for-profit company.
18 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
DVC 6/5/2024 4:04:31 PM (No. 1731843)
Probably because Medicare pays so damned little. Doc bills $10,000 for treatment.....Medicare pays $721, and that's IT....'we're the government and that's all you'll get, we decided'.
So, in order to not GO OUT OF BUSINESS and treat NO patients, they want some money up front.
I understand entirely, assuming this is a Medicare patient.
18 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/5/2024 4:10:49 PM (No. 1731850)
Years ago, while helping a friend with a stage 4 cancer, i knew of a man at the oncologist's who had maxed out his $2million medical insurance coverage. Altjough "cancer" is supposed to be special, receive specoal consideration, it is just another (very very expensive) illness to medical providers.
14 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Birddog 6/5/2024 4:10:57 PM (No. 1731851)
Uhmmm...Obama made it the LAW that she MUST have insurance, or she is a Criminal...Biden made it the LAW that Illegal Aliens get FREE healthcare, including Cancer Treatments.
(I'm a cash client for medical care, just finally found a Mohs doctor that would treat my basal cell carcinoma, $1660 upfront, payment plan for the other half)
18 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
OhioNick 6/5/2024 4:19:33 PM (No. 1731855)
#4
So in other words, if she gave up her U.S. citizenship and claimed to be a "migrant," she would get free health care.
35 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bpl40 6/5/2024 4:21:17 PM (No. 1731856)
What happened to everything for everybody at no cost?
19 people like this.
A major hospital system in Phoenix wanted me to pay up front ALL of the cost (several thousands of $$) of having a torn rotator cuff repaired even though I had excellent insurance and my co-pay should have been less than $1000. They told me they would "refund" me whatever the insurance paid. And I have a bridge for sale too. I went to a small town south of Phoenix and saw a surgeon there and was able to have the surgery I needed with no problems. Nothing like having to drive an hour away from a major metro to get medical help.
18 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 6/5/2024 5:38:23 PM (No. 1731887)
Re "major metro" hospital vs "small city" hospital. My bet is that the major metro hospitals are bleeding tens of millions per year providing unlimited free health care to illegals, and much less of that in the smaller cities.
28 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Jethro bo 6/5/2024 6:25:55 PM (No. 1731902)
Welcome to the healthcare advantages of illegals getting free stuff. So she lives on the Mexican border and Illegals get free care or the Feds destroy the hospital. So guess what, those that live in the US legally have to pay for their care and subsidize the Illegals' healthcare. Now not a word will be mentioned about illegals and Biden's lack of a border. But rest assured, hospitals on the border are closing like wildfires cause they are going broke providing free stuff to illegals. And free stuff for illegals means hospitals go broke. And that means no healthcare for any of us.
22 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Hermit_Crab 6/5/2024 7:35:47 PM (No. 1731920)
That is a horrible hospital anyway. About five years ago I got sent there for a minor procedure because my nearest regional hospital no longer had the doctor or equipment to do it.
I encountered only one competent person in the hospital for the day I was there. The doctor, an import from India that actually did the procedure knew what he was doing, and actually listened to what I had to say.
It was an actual five minute procedure, no broken bones, no cutting or stitches, or even a band-aid. The previous time I had it at my local hospital (two years before) when they were capable of it, it cost me $2,000 (I was uninsured both times) This time, the Las Cruces hospital wanted over $45,000 for it.
I was double billed for several things, Billed for things I didn't receive. and for two years after, every couple of months I'd get a bill from some various out of state companies that had nothing to do with my visit to that hospital for between $40 to $400.
It was like someone in the billing department at the hospital sent a note to a bunch of friends: "Hey, this guy is a cash customer, see what you can con him out of.".
14 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Catherine 6/5/2024 7:48:30 PM (No. 1731924)
Two quick stories: my son had a bunch of kidney stones and went to the ER, a little over a year ago. They did a brief MRI and blood work. In and out in 2 hours. He was billed $30,000. My cousin's son had kidney stones, brief MRI, 2 hours in the ER, over $40,000. I'm sure that will pay for a lot of illegals to get good care.
15 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Corndoggies 6/5/2024 8:18:46 PM (No. 1731937)
I have a meme I share about medical care in different countries. The premise is “I need stitches” and below are the countries responses.
Britain: Your appointment is in 43 months
America: Your bill will be $67,000
Canada: Have you considered dying?
It’s funny because they’re all true.
15 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 6/5/2024 8:29:00 PM (No. 1731947)
Re #12....if I needed stitches, I'd go to a 'doc in a box' a few blocks from here where it would likely get done for a fairly reasonable amount. These places, the few times I have used them, have been short wait, reasonable costs and competent staff. Your mileage may vary, I'm in suburban KC area on the Kansas side in about the highest income county in the state, that may skew these things a good bit, and the number of illegals is low enough that they just aren't visible except on roofing crews and lawn crews.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Venturer 6/5/2024 8:34:32 PM (No. 1731949)
You always have a choice. Pay $24,000 dollars for the surgery or save the $24,000 dollar for the mortician.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
franq 6/5/2024 8:52:09 PM (No. 1731959)
Medical billing is a mess. We have dealt with it on and off for the last 5-6 years. Big culprit - the HRA account. Every year my company would put $500 in for both my wife and I. Supposed to cover copays, deductible, etc. The problem is it would pay, then we would still get a bill. If my wife had not become an expert on the portals, we would have been paying out of pocket many times. Trying to get a refund (when we caught on) took months and hours on the phone. Now on Medicare, yet have cases where insurance paid, check shown cashed by provider, and they STILL sent a bill twice. Hard to figure - incompetence or attempted fraud?
8 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Nexus-1 6/5/2024 11:08:59 PM (No. 1731990)
More Blue State governmental genocide.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
caljeepgirl 6/6/2024 1:43:12 AM (No. 1732029)
Wonderful, #12!!
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
mifla 6/6/2024 4:09:50 AM (No. 1732062)
Thousands of people go to the ER, but cannot pay.
Those that can pay are going to pay more to cover those who cannot pay.
Kind of like "taxing the rich".
0 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
tootall 6/6/2024 7:32:03 AM (No. 1732134)
I wonder how millions of criminal invaders are affecting Healthcare Nationwide. This will spread.
Open borders is a very destructive force!
'Send back them!' -Felipe Calderone
1 person likes this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Muguy 6/6/2024 10:16:22 AM (No. 1732238)
#18 is correct.
Those who have insurance and can pay are charged more for the same procedure to cover the cost of those who are indigent and need the same procedure.
NoBama told U.S. we would save an average of $2,500 by using NoBamaCare, but in actuality, the co-pay, the part WE pay out of pocket, increased by thousands of dollars to subsidize those who had no insurance carrier.
In essence it once took TWO with insurance to pay for those who didn't and NOW, we have MILLIONS of ILLEGAL ALIENS on the tab to BREAK DOWN THE SYSTEM via the Cloward-Piven strategy to overthrow the Republic economically by death by tens of millions of 'cuts"
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 6/6/2024 7:30:18 PM (No. 1732625)
It's been this way for years. Public hospitals are required by the Hill-Burton act to treat all comers regardless of ability to pay. Guess where the illegals and poor go. Some years ago I was on the board of our local hospital foundation. One of the hospital execs told me that their uncompensated care cost was $55,000,000 per year. This was over 15 years ago. No telling what it is now and this is not a big city hospital.
0 people like this.
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