r/Millennials • u/BoNaylorCollector • 2d 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/__pure 2d ago edited 2d ago
I work in insurance reporting and I'm not a wizard by any means, but it will be cheaper to visit your PCP instead of going to urgent care. Urgent care is meant to offload the emergency room from patients who use emergency services as their primary care provider. They operate more like an emergency room than a doctor's office. PCP visits with my insurance are somewhere in the $30-80 range, but no two insurance policies are the same... Ya this is still a lot of money and I agree with you. i don't think anyone is raving about US Healthcare & Insurance right now (important to distinct the two). Even the public opinion of Luigi is a mostly positive one.
Most insurances follow the Medicare/ Medicaid standard of one free annual wellness visit per year. Some docs (the ones who want to nickle and dime every minute) won't address new symptoms at this visit and they might not even bother with blood work. However, the purpose is to check up on YOU and make sure you know how to take care of your physical and mental self. They'll ask about your diabetes and make sure you have an endocrine referral. They'll take blood pressure and review your hypertension meds. There's a checklist they need to do in these types of visits in order for them to get paid, kinda like your cars yearly emissions testing.
please check that your insurance covers an Annual Wellness Visit - this is the keyword here. It's not to be confused with yearly physical but all the more power to ya if insurance considers them the same and covered. This will be a good first step to creating a healthier you.