The bills are starting to come in

Remember in an earlier post, I wrote about how it's not possible to get any idea of what you're going to end up being charged for a procedure until after you've already undergone it and are on the hook for the bills?  Well, my bills are starting to come in.  I thought it'd be interesting to detail them on the blog.  I've used up my deductible, so my insurance should be paying 90% and leaving me with 10%.  The fun part is the negotiated rates.  If you HAVE insurance, you actually get charged a lower price than you would if you DON'T have insurance.  Like this bill from The Cleveland Clinic, for my MRI.  Here's how the bill reads:

3/24/12: MRI JOINT UPR EXTREM W/O DYE
Total charges:  $2848.00

4/12/12:  MANAGED CARE CONTRACTUAL ADJUST
-$1858.08

4/12/12:  UNITED HEALTHCARE PYMT
-$890.93

5/8/12: BALANCE DUE
$98.99

Since my insurance company has a deal with the Cleveland Clinic, what would have cost an uninsured person nearly three grand cost my insurance company a mere $989.92, of which UHC paid 90%, or $890.93.

I will restate this, just so the bizarrity (do you like how I invented that word?) of it doesn't pass unnoticed:  If you have no health insurance, it costs three times as much to get your MRI than it does if you have insurance.  Is that messed up, or what?

The bill for my initial visit to Dr. Latshaw's office is similar:

3/30/12:  Office visit
Fee total:  $223.00

3/30/12:  X-Ray Shoulder
Fee total:  $74.00

Adjustments:  -$171.24
United Healthcare Check Payment -$100.53
Member responsibility:  $25.23

Here again, we have this disparity between people who have insurance and people who don't.  If I hadn't had health insurance, I would have owed $297.00.  Since I did have insurance, my charges were adjusted downward by $171.24, so the final charge was only $125.76, or 42% of the original total.  Just because I have insurance, my bill was reduced by over half.  My insurance company paid 80% or thereabouts, leaving me with a bill of $25.23.