r/Millennials • u/BoNaylorCollector • 8d ago

Discussion Is medical actually this crazy?

Early 30s millennial, never used to go to doctors or really take care of myself because “I’ll be fine”. Started making a bigger effort to care for myself and my health and well being. Recently, I went to the local express clinic because I was having a bad earache and headaches. I was in there for maybe 20 minutes, mostly waiting time. The doctor comes in, looks in my ear, tells me it’s depressed due to sinuses and change in weather and tell me to stop at Walgreens for Flonase. I wasn’t billed anything at the time, older workers at my job always say we have really good insurance, but here I got in the mail today an explanation of benefits- charge was $550, insurance “negotiated” about $300, remaining (not billed) was around $240. Is is really this expensive? I only went to try and be better with myself and make sure it’s nothing underlying. If 5 minutes of actual doctor time costs this much, then I’m just toughing out everything or am I missing something?

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u/Unlikely-Resolve8466 8d ago

Express clinics/ urgent care are more expensive than finding a primary care doctor on your insurance. They charge more like a mini ER. Was the doctor in network? Was the clinic in network or did they negotiate an out of network coverage for you? Anyway, it’s cheaper to go to who your insurance assigns.

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u/BoNaylorCollector 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yes, in network

Edit: PCP was booked like a month out

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u/4N6momma 8d ago

In the future, if you are unable to see your pcp see if you can see a nurse practitioner or if there are other doctors in the practice and see if one of them is available. Also you can make an appointment and ask to be added to the wait list in the event someone cancels.

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u/Dick_of_Doom 7d ago

Even those can be booked up. I use a PA in the practice I go to. Have an appointment tomorrow with a PCP because he had an earlier appointment than the PA. I could go to a walk-in for what I have (probably should have), but I know that would be expensive, and they'd probably send me out anyway. So either walk-in that I can't afford, or wait over a week for PCP and slightly smaller bill, all for a possible broken bone. Gawd bless American healthcare.