Hi Folks, Happy new year!
I wanted to post this thread for a while now but my 18 month old son kept me on my feet
.
After my kid started going to the daycare 3 months ago, I have had to take him to his pediatrician every now and then because of ear infections and wheezing. Each time the pediatrician will use his stethoscope and otoscope , advise us to use the nebulizer and prescribe a least effective antibiotics. The total visit would last ~10 mins. This happened for around 9-10 visits and eventually we thought of consulting a ENT in blakeney on our own to figure out why the same symptoms were re-occuring.
ENT spent just 5 mins with us, used his otoscope to peep into my son's ears and told us to try over the counter allergy relief spray . That also did not help and my son's symptoms re-appeared.
Finally we switched our pediatrician and she gave a stronger antibiotics and oral steroids, which seems to be working better than the totally ineffective antibiotics prescribed before.(knock on wood)
Now I got the bill from the 1st pede's office and his original fees for those 10 mins were $200 and after my insurance adjustment, I have to pay $156. ( total $156 X 10 ) . The ENT billed us $250 for his 5 min totally useless session and after insurance adjustment, comes ~ $170.
1) Can someone please tell me if these doctor fees are normal and standard in charlotte area for just 5-10 minute visits? ($200 for 10 mins approx equals atleast $500 an hour/$1mill a year)
2)I feel that the 1st pede could have prescribed us a stronger antibiotic in our 3rd or 4th visit and thus saved my son from all those misery and pain, but he chose not to, so that he could make more money. I smell a ripoff here
. Is this common practice among most of the other doctors too?
3) Can I talk to the billing office to negotiate the rates and is it possible at all , to get the rates lowered.
4) I understand each physician has its own rates. How do I know which doctors have lower rates compared to the others, say in the same facilities like Novant?
Thanks in advance for looking at my post. Looking at all these bills is making me mad
.. Happy weekend!