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Computer bill format for Healthcare

it's great to have you here on the Clark Howard Show you know our mission is to serve you with advice and information that empowers you so you make better financial decisions in your life are you superstitious Friday the 13th I've never been superstitious no no but it's always funny because I travel a lot and you go to other countries and they'll have a 13th floor and I'm like wow that's unusual but this Friday the 13th is a lucky lucky day for me because I get to learn from you in today's Clark staks how I could have done a better job and I I actually so look forward to this and I recently had an experience later I'm going to talk about an experience I had in the healthcare world where I was able to save substantial money and I want to share it with you because this is so relevant as more and more of us pay more and more deductibles with our health coverage but without further Ado it is time to hear how I messed up I should have never encouraged you to speak you almost think I'm pretty stupid you should be ashamed of yourself well maybe I'm wrong Maybe I'm Wrong maybe you're right pal [Music] all right you don't sting but you may not have mentioned something that could be helpful my family was happy to donate to Clark's Christmas kids again this year I was able to have my company match our donation even though the agency that runs the program is not a 501c3 organization it's a state state agency that's why they are certainly charitable and that is what counted for my company perhaps if you mentioned the potential for companies to match donations Clark's Christmas kids could reach a few more kids thanks for your continued sound advice and happy holidays John in New York City John thank you so much for not only feeling that Spirit of what we do with Clark's Christmas kids for children in foster care but to get your employer the your company to also donate and we do have a procedure where the donations are tax deductible and it is not a traditional 501c3 because it's state government but thank you for reaching down I95 and giving this money to the kids in foster care I appreciate it so very much you want to know what inspired John go to Clark christm kids.com I never thought I'd write one of these because you really don't stink Clark but occasionally we do need to point out a MISD detail or Al alternate point of view you talked about being handed a piece of paper on a clipboard when you go to the doctor doctor's office and how behind in the times that seems maybe so but remember that not everyone uses computers yet I take my 9 something year old mother to all her medical appointments and if she was told that anything had to be done electronically she would be completely lost of course I would do it for her but not everyone has that assistance there's still at least one generation ahead of me that is not used to doing things electronically and I cannot imagine how much it would slow things down if they were asked to verify their meds list or update their current symptoms electronically I appreciate that post very very much and I want to say this think of it this way it is the exception not the rule of people who prefer paper it's at this point a small percent of the population so what you could have at a medical facility is if somebody doesn't you could either assist them under Hippa you could have someone in the office assist them filling out on a tablet because it would usually be a ta not a computer or in those cases you could have them fill out by default the old paperwork but it seems really not efficient in an era where things should be electronic where any medical provider would see the information about you to do it electronically instead of with the clipboard the dreaded clipboard do you go to any doctor's offices that have accepted that it's not 1950 58 anymore most of them now I do it electronically I usually do it before I get a text before I go to fill out the paperwork and I do it online before I show up but then I get annoyed sometimes because then they'll have me do it again when I get there I'm like I did this oh I say oh I already F this out and they say oh let me look oh yes you did you can sit down now Clark often talks about using Schwab for foreign ATM withdrawals but he never mentions Fidelity which also reimburses customers for ATM fees is there a good reason to use Schwab instead of fidelity or are they both equally good Russell Russell thank you I didn't know that Fidelity was doing the uh fee free ATM charges and that's an oversight on my part and I thank you for pointing that out and this is exactly why we do Clark stin so Advantage disadvantage of fidelity Schwab or my third favorite child Vanguard they all have their pluses and minuses there is no not one of these companies is perfect if uh you really like what you get from Fidelity then use Fidelity if you really like what you get from Schwab use Schwab and same in turn for Vanguard I actually use all three I'm an internal medicine physician who works in the outpatient setting and would like to address some misconceptions about billing for care that were expressed regarding billing for an extra diagnosis during an annual physical and by the way so many people reacted to this saying it happened to them and just so much buz people on both sides of this one imagine you have a 20 to 30 minute appointment for an annual physical The Physician must cover all age appropriate screening and preventative care depending on age in addition the patient brings up several complaints that now require evaluation and diagnosis if the doctor bills it as an annual visit they will not get reimbursed for the time and expertise it took to evaluate and diagnose the added complaints if you went to the dentist for a cleaning and complained about a painful tooth that needed immediate extraction would you be surprised that you got charged for the extraction if went to a lawyer for annual tax advice but then asked him to handle a speeding ticket would you expect not to be charged if you took your car in for annual maintenance and told them about a clicking sound you get the point when people go for an annual physical it should be made very clear what will and will not be covered by that visit and if it isn't people shouldn't assume but ask Jane and then another listener Jeremy sent this message this image from his annual physic looking at it right now yeah and it's it was in the doctor's office the sign which is pretty so the sign makes it very clear and I like this because this is what I talk about with medicine that it uh that you eat the meal and then you're told what's going to charge I like that this doctor's office says this is what's covered by your physical these are things that are not that will be built separately I really like that the doctor did it and by the way doctors are not the the bad people in medicine and I want to address this again because I have new data the hospitals are where the problem begins ends in the middle hospitals are where our medical costs are out of control not doctors and also not prescription drugs I'll lay it all out if we can schedule that sometime on another podcast or YouTube show I can understand why Clark doesn't want to tell his listeners that he has the free MX platinum card from Schwab most of his target audience doesn't have the account balance to qualify for it and doesn't fit his lowbudget brand but I think it's okay to show everyone the nice perks that come along with living below your means and growing a big pile of Financial Security and some listeners have used his tips over the decades to graduate from coupon clipping to living high on the hog it's no secret that successful podcasts make a lot of money and Clark has been more open in recent years about his wealth he's told us he has an account at Schwab and surely that account meets the balance requirements for $1,000 credit when you have the Platinum MX I'm pretty sure if there's $1,000 lying on the ground Clark is going to stop and pick it up Christa probably has the Platinum MX 2 but it is not her podcast so we can give her a pass for now but full disclosure from Clark about the cards in his wallet and needed if we need to tr trust everything he says after all there's no law that says you can't be a cheap skate and filthy stinking Rich Andrew Andrew thank you and I don't have the Schwab MX I don't either yeah um I had the Schwab card for ever ago when it was a 2% cash back card the card is not as generous now it's one and a half the Rego card is one and a half the Platinum MX from Schwab the difference is yes you get a credit depending on it's 100 200 or a th000 depending on how much money you have with schab but also right now through early January they're offering um I think it's 150,000 MX points as opposed to 880,000 bonus sign up with regular Platinum MX when so did you get this card I haven't no I don't think I have a need for it I have too many credit cards so um I I don't actually carry the Schwab card right now so I can't speak first person about the Schwab card do you have a platinum MX I do I have the travel one the the one with the massive annual fee and it is massive it works out for me with uh traveling about 30 weeks a year I don't recommend it to people who don't travel a substantial amount I found your response the person who wanted more information about freezing their credit with the smaller agencies lacking you referenced one that many of the cell phone companies use that criminals have been targeting please tell us what company that is I tried Googling that info and came up with nothing Let The Listener decide whether or not to go through the hassle of freezing this account your show notes do link to the info which we have on clark.com for smaller agencies but there's no mention of the cell phone company if criminals have been targeting something please don't keep it to yourself I was in law enfor for M for 26 years and saw the grief and destruction associated with identity theft um on another note I seem to remember you talking about getting stood up by rid sharing drivers as I understand it we rate the drivers and they rate US I'm guessing a riter's tip history factors into their ratings of us I'm not sure what kind of Tipper you are but it may help to explain why you're left standing out in the cold thank you and all the cloward team members for all the hard work you do Jim from Seattle Jim thank you I've got uh I've got a good Rider rating and uh I I tip what I think is quite generously I get a lot of thank you messages from drivers I'm looking right now cuz I don't remember the name of that company I'm looking at um I already looked at T-Mobile they just say they're going to run one they don't say who it's with I'm looking at Verizon and I'm looking to see if they disclose who they use well why don't we do this we will find it and we'll put it in the show notes from today's episode okay because there was a specialty credit bureau that the cell phone carriers traditionally used right and we do we do don't remember the name of it we do have that article on cart.com with all the smaller agencies where you can and shows how you can go and freeze your credit with all of them if you're concerned about any of this um but we will will put that in the the show the episode notes if you are listening to this or watching it um it should be in the notes for this episode and thank you for your career in law enforcement thank you two things one on your electric razor you say you've never replaced the blade and you don't notice it getting worse but you didn't say what if anything you do to maintain it do you rinse it out after each shave and two you say there should be more competition with the Electric and Gas Utilities the power utilities uh and are completely different than electronic and Gas Utilities the I'm sorry are completely different from say the trucking industry it is much easier to buy a truck and go into business and compete how are companies supposed to compete in the power industry build their own electric grids and gas pipes it is most efficient to just have one electric grid and one gas pipe system if you think companies should be able to lease the power infrastructure and get their own customers I think that would lead to more unaccountability and scams if you think regulation should be Loos with respect to it being easier for solar companies to sell power to the electric company or have neighborhoods create a co-op and produce their own solar maybe there's something there but you should be more specific on exactly how competition could be increased thank you love Chris Chris thank you very much okay is this going to be like a three-hour podcast I start explaining my philosophies about energy um I love what Texas has done they've had growing pains with it obviously when uh the state didn't deal well with the extreme cold weather they had several years ago it was a tragic event but what Texas does in most of the state is there are power generators there are the for La of a better term the network providers that provide the infrastructure the long lines to get the power to where it's going and then the retailers and so what it allows is that any form of energy has access to the grid and provides power and that's why power in Texas is generally so much cheaper than it is anywhere else in the country because it is a free market for the generation and ultimate retailing of energy and I am I am so in a belief that the free market finds the most efficient way to do so and with the state regulated monopolies and by the way to your point you only need one provider of the transmission uh you need one provider of the pipeline necessarily but how that energy is produced and who sells it directly to the public can be fully free market activities and so that's my thing thing and what I despise are the state regulated monopolies where there's what's called regulatory capture the political process is corrupted in every single state with Monopoly power companies because the power company is powerful enough and spreads enough money to politicians that whatever Stacks the deck in their favor and against industry consumers and small businesses is what happens instead of government being there to just be a referee government Stacks the deck for the power company that is the Monopoly that's my thing and I'm intense about it and I'm going to stop right now because otherwise we'd be here till the cows come home wherever that expression came from with me talking about this not that you stink but a factual statement you made I believe is incorrect when talking about ugas for children you stated to return it to turn it over to the child when the custodian feels they are ready I have ugas for my grandchildren and when one turned the age of majority for their state I had to turn the account over to them no choice keep up the great work Gregory Gregory thank you okay so what I said and I must not have said it clearly is it's exactly there's a legal age where the money goes to the kid but what happens is a practical matter in a lot of families that the statements keep coming and they never tell the kid that the money's there and let me tell you that happens a lot and so the if the child's not mature enough as a young adult they just don't know about that account I mean that's how it really plays in a lot of family Dynamics and I want to thank you so much for taking the time to submit your Clark sting and from time to time through the year we do like an entire podcast of just Clark sinks cuz they back up because I'll go through a cycle where in your opinion I'm really really stinking it up and you just can't imagine how much this helps your fellow listener or viewer how much it helps me because I'll ex I'll give an opinion or state something and I'm missing part of the picture or I don't explain it well like with ugas just then and so knowing where I've got a blind's eye to the ability to to explain something or say something makes this a better podcast and a better YouTube show so thank you for taking the time and if you're frustrated because yours hasn't been uh read yet by Christa well we got so many it takes takes it's a process to get to all of them and and I don't ever get to all of them yeah it's impossible to get to all of them uh so maybe uh should we ever have a place where you just post all the Clark stins online for people to be able to read maybe so we'll look into that yeah because I want people to be heard I want them to be seen because they can go to our community on clark.com we have our community they could join our community and and you know share your beef with me whatever it is so coming up ahead uh my my thing about healthc care is the industry doesn't want you to shop around is now 18% of our economy is Healthcare and we are now 45th in lifespans in the world 45th spending more money than anybody else and I want to help you spend less on that Healthcare and maybe get better care we're going to talk about that straight ahead all right so we spend so much money on Health Care in the United States it's insane I mentioned just before the break here we're now 45th in the world on lifespans you'd be amazed at the countries in the world where people live longer than we do and yet we're spending so much of our nation's wealth instead of on productive capacity to increase people's standards of living we're spending it on health care with a lot of sand in the gears and one of the scams going on in the country is this thing with nonprofit hospitals where at the big ones administrators may be earning more than 10 million a year and the hospital is not paying any tax on all the profits it has hiding behind the curtain as a nonprofit so if you are a nonprofit hospital and you avoid paying taxes like the rest of us you have a responsibility to provide charity care to people who maybe have insurance but have really large deductibles and can't afford the bill to hospital generated or someone who doesn't have insurance the hospitals are supposed to have a procedure to apply for charity care and a lot of these nonprofits only pretend they're nonprofit and don't follow the legal responsibilities they have to provide charity care so something I haven't mentioned I think in two years dollar for.org which is d o a r.org which walks you through if if you've got uh one of these headaches of these huge hospital bills how to apply for that Hospital's charity care assistance program that they keep a big fat secret and yeah you hear it the anger I have about hospitals I'm going to talk about that as I mentioned the other day I'm going to talk about that as a topic on another show how much of that incredible waste of spending nearly one in five of our Nations dollars generated each year on health care where the next closest country in the world spends $ one1 in1 or the equivalent in their currency but one of the things is with the hospitals something there you think that the the size of them would lead to economies of scale that they'd be able to do something more efficiently than let's say a little popup in a shopping center well let me tell you a little story recently I'm having uh some trouble in my left knee and so I needed to get an MRI so it took some work but I found out at the hospital system that I can walk to on my gimpy knee that it would be $2,400 for the MRI and then I'd have my share of it so I know about this because I've shared with you before how how much cheaper the independent free standers are so I end up getting the MRI at a freestander uh owned by I guess some doctors or whatever own it not part of a hospital system I said so what does it cost for this MRI and they said is it uh with or without contrast to your KN so I said without contrast I say well it's $300 I said wait a minute I walk in off the street and I paid $300 for it said yeah like surprised that I was surprised and then I'm thinking so it's eight times that cost at the hospital having the MRI so I so I make the appointment at this free Stander and I do have insurance so my share was $85 my share if I'd filed through insurance was more than they would have charged me at this place not having Insurance just going as cash pay if I had done to the hospital my share of the co-pay would have been uh gosh was it been 600 whatever it's crazy that the hospitals instead of doing what should happen as an organization develops uh more production is the cost per should go down but in the hospital World they go up so this is really funny so you go in there and they have uh they have soft music playing in the waiting room they have really comfortable chairs to sit in they have a sofa I mean and then they've got medical chairs for people who are all uh beat up and they're you know they they need to sit in just like a medical kind of chair and then they have snacks and somebody comes out and says what could I get you to drink would you like a coffee or a cappuccino or water or a soft drink and I'm like man I got this variety snacks and a kid came in who had a sports injury like probably 10 12 years old it was like the greatest day ever with all the snacks were available to him think about that that when you when you have something that has to compete in the free market how different the environment is and then that the cost is cheaper but with medicine understand that the hospital systems and midsize and large markets are buying up all these other practices in shopping centers and all that and then they're charging you Hospital rates they may not have the hospital name on there it may say affiliate ated with baah blah blah hospital system it'll have a different name and then the bill will be what they'd bill you at the hospital this is why when you're having something non-emergency shopping around could make such a difference in what you pay and I would have been happy just it was so much cheaper but it was really funny that the atmosphere was like I was going to a boutique kind of place that I'd pay more but instead it was was that 1/8 the cost at the free Stander as it is at the hospital by the way uh you know we just had Clark stin so you work for a hospital you want to tell me why I'm just missing the big picture please go ahead and submit at clark.com Clark stinks all right we'll go to questions Patrick and Georgia says my Condominium Association unfortunately uses I'm going to call oh you can name them they're so they're they're like it's almost like talking about the government is it conservice is that conserv how you say it yeah to build members for our water/ sewer usage recently a cons conservice employee forged a check that I wrote to them including my signature by the grace of the great spirit did I happen to notice their attempt the board in my Banks fraud department were immediately contacted and my bank's investigation confirmed the forgery attempt I do not feel comfortable issuing any additional payments to them and have notified the board and property manager of my Justified feelings and asked for another payment option the board and property manager are seemingly ignoring the situation and paid cons conservice they are fully aware of the situation and are now billing me late fees I don't know what to do all right so Patrick it's crazy that you're being build late fees conserva should issue you an apology should cover uh any fees anything like that because it was their employee allegedly who uh committed fraud changed the you know uh manipulated the check blah blah blah blah blah let me explain what conservice is because people keep asking me about them you you live in a single family home so you're not familiar right so they bill a lot for um common utilities at condo associations apartments and in rare cases things that are common utility that people may have at a homeowners association Community but normally condo and apartment so if I'm a condo uh management company Condo Association I'm an apartment manager and I'm billing out separately instead of in the regular rent for an apartment or condo fees for for a condo association and I want to break out water and sewer there are these companies of which conservice is best I know is the biggest in the country I contract with them to do the individual billing of tenants or uh unit owners and we are not the customer when we're being buildt by them so the association or the apartment owner is trying to provide these Services uh at what's the cheapest cost for them and many times you'll be builded service fees to pay the bill when you use one of these third-party servicers like conservice but they are not service is an odd name because whenever you're not the customer think at the credit bureaus getting customer service is not easy and it's funny with these organizations and I'm not specifically picking on conservice just because they're the they're the biggest I'm talking about the one people would be most familiar with um they often in order to get the business from an association Department owner are charging you fees to pay your bill so it it's really an unfortunate situation and this came about because when people are build for these things as just part of their rent or their build as part of their condominium fee people don't seem to care that much about how much water or uh various utilities like electricity or gas or whatever they use so the idea is to make market pricing more evident to you unfortunately the process of doing it has continually been a messy Endeavor Stephen in Colorado says any feedback on using Google fi on iPhones my wife wants to switch from Android OnePlus to iOS for her phone many of our kids use iPhones and she's also addicted to her iPad but the Google F store says that iOS compatibility is only data in beta which it's been for like five years long time uh so full disclosure uh four of us and our family are on Google fi and everybody is on an iPhone but me and the iPhones you have to go through a manual process because Apple and Google don't like to play well together and you have to go in and change CH some settings before an iPhone will work properly on Google f for various things like travel overseas for checking your voicemail and all that it's not a difficult process it's tedious takes about five minutes and you can uh you can have the instructions like on a computer screen and go in and manually change those settings why it's not automated I don't understand enough about the Hatfield McCoy thing between uh Apple and Google but you do it will work fine on Google fi as long as you do make sure that those manual setting changes are made and Michelle in New Hampshire says I want to know where Clark gets all of his knowledge what are you reading or watching to learn about all the things you know so I don't watch I read I read I read I read and uh I am really dull if you don't know that Michelle I'm a really dull guy when I get excited about people laugh about all the time the things I get excited about but um my first read uh every day is the financial times because they spend so much of their writer efforts on financial cuz I'm always looking Deep dive Financial uh stories about companies about Industries I read my second read is Baron's magazine uh Barons does used to be just a Weekly Magazine but now has daily updates and I read uh the Wall Street Journal same company owns Barons owns The Wall Street Journal um I read the major newspapers New York Times Washington Post LA Times although the LA Times is not that great anymore used to write really really great financial stuff and personal finance uh USA Today does a good job with personal finance I read that I read the New York Post which ironically enough same owners as Barons and the Wall Street Journal um and then I read a number of Industry Publications and I and I read every single day of my life and for me it's this is where the dull comes in it's Recreation for me to read and learn more about things and learn more about finance and what's going on with various economies around the world it's what I love and I still remember my first economics course in college that a lot of people in the class found it kind of dry and were like zoning out and I was like engaged like you could never could never imagine and the college I went to had a communist Marxist economics program and uh I would just argue with uh with whoever the professor was because I'm totally a capitalist free marketeer so this is this is my love uh other than my family and my friends and it's what I study all the time so I hope that explains somewhat why you hear me talk about the most obscure things and I got to tell you a funny thing Christa think about in our meetings when we're all meeting all the different functions our our website and the podcast and the YouTube show and radio and TV and all the things I do and we're all meeting and then I'll talk about something completely obscure and you always say I've been waiting to hear why you were interested in that what's the weirdest you can think of lately don't put me on the spot I don't know you're always you've always got an angle on something too that surprises me that's why I don't think AI is ever going to be able to nail you down I was thinking about that if you said what would Clark Howard say about this I would challenge AI to really be able to answer that because you always have some unique spin on something but you we always joke about the convenience stores and how you make the interesting mundane and the mundane interesting as you like to say it it's no exciting I me the mundane exciting and the exciting mundane okay okay sorry yeah I remember Lane and I this my wife Lane and I were uh we were uh outside Buckingham Palace recently she's looking she's looking at the grounds it was summer so the flowers were just gorgeous and all this and I'm like what is that car I've never seen that car before what is it car is driving by I mean I really uh I really sometimes miss the moment because of my obsession with different things I mean recently we were talking about there was an article about a small house that you could build that is $36,000 or something and it was you didn't have to permit it and you could I was like we need to move on remember and I wouldn't stop talking about this this permit free prefab home yeah yeah so Michelle understand with that knowledge comes some to put it politely a lot of quirkiness but it's great that's why people love you that's why you you do bring so many things like to light and make them so interesting like I find myself now in convenience stores going oh look at the flooring whatever Clark with never ever have thought about that before or the lighting to make me feel safe the lighting to make women feel safe is something the the business people who discovered that in the late 80s it's like why did nobody think of that before cuz it's not like just women want to feel safe people want to feel safe but it was all about creating environments where women could feel safe enough about that uh thank you so much for joining us today I hope you have a great great weekend in front of you uh Christmas is you're staring down the barrel of it if you're one of those procrastinators like a third of people procrastinate on buying gifts you will find now that the prices on things people want are much much higher than they were even 10 days ago but the things people don't want are marked down very heavily now through Christmas so if you find that needle and hay stack that you know the person who would really like having it I mean if it's something that people generally don't want but you know you're gift recipient would like well your Wild's going to smile on you you procrastinated on the other hand if they want that hot item your wallet hates you right now have a great great weekend and if you get in traffic at some shopping area this weekend remember keep your patience on because well it gets tough at the stores I used to say the malls now it's at Costco or Sam's Club or Walmart or Target or uh you know strip centers or what the traffic and finding the spaces can be try anybody's patience so remember this is about the season of joy and giving and holiday and all that just take a deep breath if you're around people that are short-tempered and we'll see you Monday