Anyone knowledgeable about insurance and hospital discounts?
DH is scheduled for surgery on Monday morning. Yesterday, someone from the hospital called to go over insurance info, etc. He said that after insurance, our portion would be $4500 and if we paid within 7 days, it would be discounted to $3900.
Our insurance has a $3000 deductible and then pays 20% above that and we have a max out-of-pocket of $4000. We also have an HRA as part of it and have accumulated about $4400 in there. So, we will actually not have to pay anything from our actual pockets, since the HRA will cover it.
I called our insurance today and asked about paying it within 7 days to get the discount. I wanted to know if I paid it at the hospital on Monday, would I easily get reimbursed from the HRA. I was told the hospital should not be offering any discounts, since they are contracted with the insurance at a certain price. If the hospital is offering a discount for paying, it may mean they are not fully billing the insurance and we would not be able to be reimbursed at all and it would also not go towards our deductible for the year.
I now realize that I think we are only looking at saving $100, since the $4500 the hospital guy gave us is wrong, since the max out-of-pocket is $4000/person. So it probably doesn't really matter in the long run. But I am wondering what sounds right to you, if anyone has experience with this. It's a big hospital, so I am surprised they might be doing something they shouldn't like this (if they are).
DH also pointed out that every orthodontist we saw offered a cash discount for paying in full and wondered how this was any different.