Are Private Hospitals on the "Gouge"

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Are Private Hospitals on the "Gouge"

6 yrs ago

So you would rather go to a private hospital than a public one?.

This question is obvious, especially if you're paying for private top hospital cover, or is it?. Recent experience in my case shows that private hospitals are not what they seem. In fact they are blatantly gouging their clients/patients/customers, whatever the advertising splurge deems appropriate.

How? Here is the setting. You get sick, perhaps after a nasty fall and you go to your GP soon after, for a checkup. Your GP gets alarmed knowing you have arthritis and osteo porosis, especially after noting the large lump on the head and then tries to contact your specialist, to arrange admission. You are taken to your favourite private hospital at lunch time for admission to the inpatient wing. Unfortuneatly, the specialist doesn't come in till the next day.

You can't wait for the specialist as the pain is increasing plus you suspect you have fractured an elbow when you fell. The reception clerk stops you cold. Pleading is no good, the clerk says hospital policy says you can only be admitted by a specialist, and the GP's concern for her patient goes unheeded. So what does she do? She refers you to outpatients, even though you were at the same hospital for the same condition 6 months before.

So, because your specialist is on leave, you can't be admitted as an inpatient. Then you think, as an outpatient, at least I'll get seen by a hospital doctor. As you have been paying You part with a minimum starting fee of $320 outpatient admission fee, and it's up to the doctor to decide if you can be admitted as an inpatient. He takes some basic tests like examining the wounds and decides, hell, this patient needs brain scans, body scans ultrasound and xrays to pinpoint the problem.

The scans and X-rays are done. And guess what, you are admitted as an inpatient by the doctor. Hooray you think, I'm covered now, so you start to relax. Then you are told there is no bed available. They transfer you to another private hospital that very night. You spend a week at this hospital and no one can tell you what's causing the falls except perhaps low salt levels. They release you with a prescription of basic drugs like pain killers after a week and good bye Jack. In fairness the attending staff were excellent.

Then the sh#t hits the fan a few weeks later. You get a bill from the outpatients arm (A separate entity to the rest of the private hospital if that's possible). This is for the scans at $665.65. Out of pocket now nearly $1,000. So you go to Medicare - no hope, you go to your hospital insurer (remember top hospital cover at $4,080 per year on top of medicare) and they also have a policy that they do not cover outpatients bills.

I can't take this crap from private hospitals run as a business concern by business people. As I was a top hospital architect working on site at a major teaching hospital, I knew how the system worked. Firstly, private hospitals made this policy to show the government they were not greedy, and also to please the insurance companies. So who pays? the patient of course. The mug at the end of the chain.

I threathened a class action suit against all private hospitals, and guess what, it suddenly dawned on those greedy business owners that patients had enough of a supposedly "all encompassing cover" if you need hospitalization. My fee was immediately negated to zero. How many others have been gouged about a $1000 for a an inpatient admission which the silly clerk covered her antics by stating it was hospital policy. I would like a mass reaction to this by anyone who met similar gouging practises in the past.

Then there is the question of who is a specialist. If your GP is good enough to refer you to hospital, why must it be a specialist? They had no answer except to say it's their policy.

6 comments

ex PS

6 yrs ago

People need to consider whether Private Health coverage is cost effective in their individual case. What is is costing you and what are you getting for the money, in a genuine life threatening emergency you will be found a hospital bed in a Public Hospital, so if you are not anticipating the need for elective surgery, is Private Cover the best option?

Private Health Cover is a business, they will do what it takes to make profits for the investors, just a reality of life.

Private health cover is compulsory in Australia if you are working and paying tax .

Yet it does not cover you for GPs which the government give free to everybody via bulk billing .

Those with Private health cover use public hospitals as there was s no cost ie gap .

Medicasre tax on wages which is higher the more you earn is not insurance but a tax . Covers about a third of the cost of health spend by the government . There is far too much waste and not enough personal responsibility in the Australian way .

Brocky, private health cover is not compulsory and GP's can choose to charge patients a fee rather than bulk bill.

OM if you do not take out Private Cover you are penalised with a higher tax rate . So yes it is compulsory .

Yes GPs like the rest of the health system is privatised and they can charge what they like .

85 per cent choose not to charge the patient anything but bill the government (ie Taxpayers)

Jojozep why did you go to a private health hospital when you could go to a public one for free .

JoJozep

6 yrs ago

Brocky, As you may well know, getting attention as an outpatient in a public hospital is a horrific experience. Several years ago I was rushed to the Alfred hospital by taxi, as there was one outside our building in Lt. Bourke Street.. I had suffered a stroke, and my employer thought an ambulance would take too long.

I was seen by a doctor 4 hours after I arrived, and admitted immediately to inpatients. So much for rushing to a public hospital. I was probably due for a massive heart attack, and that could have happened while I sat there.

Outpatients triage is controlled by the administration section, and to be fair, they must give preference to first in first seen, so don't go there bleeding from a head wound, you might bleed to death before anyone sees you.

Now tell me you never had an experience where you were in pain but no-one saw you till thirty people ahead of you were seen first. Is this what you want to save some money?

Please get real and let me know how you fared on fronting up to outpatients in a public hospital.

JJ never been to hospital so can't personaly comment . From what you say the Aussie health system sounds an expensive mess ..

Have been there, done that with my late husband. Outpatient charges are exorbitant in some private hospitals IMO. Scans have to be claimed through Medicare, which in our case, only reimbursed a fraction of the value of the actual cost. The scanning services were provided by 'outsourced' Imaging Services companies who used the hospital premises and were the only ones available to an outpatient there. Interestingly, the same services by the same companies at their other 'community' locations were cheaper when he used them, rather than the hospitals, in the same time period.

We resorted to going to emergency and getting him admitted when possible to save on cost. Even so after around 18 months we were around $20,000.00 out-of-pocket for his outpatient treatments. These costs did include 'day patient' radiation therapy at clinics recommended by his oncologist.

I still have private cover. However, in my own experience over the last 5 years, have requested ambos take me to my nearest public hospital where I have been admitted as a private patient. IMO the service there has been better than the five private hospitals my husband was in and my total out-of-pocket expenses to date, after several visits, is around $100.00.

Live and learn, if you're lucky enough to live that is.

anonysubscribe

6 yrs ago

problem is every private business venture masquerading as a public service is still caught up with gouging money. We as consumers don't know as much as in your case to argue. it is hard to become expert at every business transaction we deal with as every business seems to want to gouge you and you need to do due diligence each time you buy any good or services.

2. Should we go to the public hospital instead?

3. Same problem happened when my daughter was delivered. we had private in a public hospital. Our doctor did not bother showing for 24 hours. The government staff told us they could not interfere because we were private. Many such rules.

Problem with Govt monopolies ...

Private enterprise creates competition which brings better service and lower prices ...

JoJozep

6 yrs ago

Ahh! Competition among private Businesses? Really? Look at the petrol companies. Have you noticed prices are generally kept level at all petrol stations within 5 Km of each other. Why? Because they collude secretly with each other to match prices.

An old friend, who owned a petrol station told me that every morning at 8.00, he would ring all petrol stations nearby and they all tell each other the highest price they will charge for the day. This arrangement generates the maximum profit for all petrol stations in the vicinity.

The government knows this, and they do nothing because they collect more tax at higher prices.

You see, there is a myth out there that big business provides jobs, investment and enriches the economy. Is the general public dumb enough to believe this rhetoric? Unfortuneatly, a large number do. Here is the truth.

1. Big and small business sack workers to reduce their costs and improve the bottom line. They only retain jobs critical for the businesses to function.

2. Investment is limited to return maximum profit. Overseas companies invest, charge ridiculous prices for thier products (refer Apple), pay zero or little tax, outcompete Australian companies by using cheap labour and have legal teams bigger than Congress to fight any upstart or competion or infringement of copywrite. Drug companies come to mind.

3. Have you wondered why Ireland is not the richest country on earth, seeing Apple has invested billions in it. That's because Apple is there to rob taxpayers by paying low tax and we, the Australian guinea pigs pay high prices to apple products to support the multi-national.

Point is, private business are there to improve the bottom line, and private hospitals do exactly that, not show concern for their patients. Obviously they need patients, or they would have no one else to charge, but as the government washes it's hands when it comes to outpatients, and private insurers do likewise, the weakest link in the gravy train is the sick patient. Only young, fit people with no illness, see poor and sick people as bludgers on the taxpayer, till they in turn become sick and then scream at the poor service. I'd like to see what Scott Morrison would do if he became sick. No doubt, being a crafty politician and treasurer, he would ensure the taxpayer footed all his bills, and so it's easy for him to say user pays. Point he misses is the user has already paid his taxes all his life and through the medicare levy.

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Are Private Hospitals on the "Gouge"

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