Clinic with Two Doors: Those Who Pay Up Front Get Better Care than Those with Insurance
This gives a whole new meaning to “two-tier” health care:
On Manhattan’s fashionable Upper East Side, the door on 77th Street says Lenox Hill Radiology. It’s a busy place, with 20 or 30 people typically waiting in chairs. It takes insurance.
But if you walk a few steps down the block to Madison Avenue, and one block up to 78th Street, you’ll walk through the door of New York Private Medical Imaging. The waiting room has only four chairs, usually empty. It takes cash, checks and credit cards. You can try to recoup some of your money later if you have insurance.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyoPaVxMyWY
Behind Closed Doors
To see how it works, msnbc.com sent two reporters…for their routine mammograms on the same afternoon to document their experiences.
At the Lenox Hill clinic, on the insurance side, Helen waited 15 days to get an appointment. On the day of her mammogram, she stood in line at the reception desk in a crowded waiting room. An elderly patient wandered the reception area in her hospital gown, pleading for someone to help her. In the changing room, Helen’s gown was the usual thin seersucker. The technician was friendly and efficient, though Helen didn’t see a doctor. She went home not knowing whether she was healthy or not, and waited nine days for her results. But it was good news, a clean bill of health. Though the list price was $350, Helen’s insurance paid the clinic $140 and she paid nothing, because her health insurance covers preventive care such as mammography.
At the Private Imaging clinic — the boutique side — Linda was able to get an appointment in two days. She was greeted immediately in the private reception area. She changed into a comfy spa robe. Her technician was also friendly and efficient, then the doctor read the scan after a few minutes, reassuring her, “Your mammogram’s negative. Nothing to worry about. See you next year.” Linda walked out carrying a copy of her X-rays. Linda wrote a check to the clinic for $350; if she’d had the same insurance plan as Helen, Linda’s net cost would have been $210.
Very good post. And ooh too true.
This is going to be happening all over the country under Obama Care.
Actually this sounds like the British National Health Service. Nothing surprising. Except that it’s happening in the US.
Great post. I agree with the above. We are going to see a lot more of this.
Happened to me at an ENT in Berlin. Full waiting room of the insured waiting and waiting. I was paying cash, had an appointment. Ushered to head of line, went right in.