Bloody Business

Back in February my primary doctor asked the dialysis center to draw a couple of extra tubes of my blood for some additional tests she wanted done. “We could do it in my office,” the doctor said, “But if it is done at the dialysis center, you won’t have another needle stuck in your arm.”

After hooking me up for dialysis each week, the attendant draws blood out of the tube attached to my arm before starting the machine. It is a routine thing to check on how efficiently the treatments are cleaning the junk in my blood not removed by my damaged kidneys.

So the blood was drawn. I was told that the tests would be done at Baylor Hospital, about 200 feet across the street from the dialysis center. (My house is in a quiet neighborhood less than half a mile from a big medical center. It takes me five minutes to drive from my house to all my doctor appointments – a big advantage for an old lady.)

In today’s mail I found a “Medicare Summary Notice” for those blood tests. I was surprised to read that the bill came from Spectra East, Inc., Boston MA. This is the kind of inefficiency in our medical system President Obama talks about. Why should tests done in Texas be billed in Massachusetts?

Even more shocking was the bill. Spectra sent in a claim for $1,528.52. That’s what it says clearly: $1,528.52.

I was relieved to see that Medicare only paid $158.09. To me that seems reasonable. Remember this when medical professionals complain that Medicare is cutting their payments.

Thanks to John, I have excellent health insurance. I never pay a doctor or hospital bill, and my prescriptions cost only $4 for a three-month supply. Even if it does not affect me personally, I am outraged at the amount charged for medical services. That includes doctors. We depend on them to keep us healthy. But how much is just compensation for a 5-minute office visit? Surely $350 is about ten times too much.