Inflated bill from Medbase

Finance, Taxes, Banking, Insurance and Retirement
1
Hi,

I'm in Neuchatel area, using the Telmed system via Helsana. I needed to check my ankle to a doctor, so Telmed suggested a few, but all of them were unavailable to receving me, full. Why is this happening if are free from Helsana point of view could be another full topic - according to Helsana is not the insurer responsibility.

So Telmed suggested to go to a Medbase center.

I went, there was a reception for urgence and another for not urgent people. I queued, I was asked if was urgent, I said it was not and I just needed someone to check me. The (non urgent) receptionist took my data, then I waited 20 min. Then a nurse receives me for measuring the pressure (why I am not sure). Then I wait another 15 minutes in the room I've been told to go, a "general" doctor then arrives, looks and touch the ankle, all done, nothing to worry. All in 5 minutes or so, and all was done.

I receive an invoice with the following:

- Consultation basic, first 5 minutes

- supplement for service of family doctor at the medical cabinet

- Consultation additional, first 5 minutes

- Consultation additional, last 5 minutes

- Small exam from the primary care specialist

- Treatment, followup and monitoring in the room, price per period of 15 minutes

- Indemnity sum for inconvenience in case of consultation of urgent visit (OR) Visit outside of opening hours

- Medical service without the patient, including the study of the patient's dossier

-Report written without a form, from 11 to 35 rows

Total: 225 CHF

I am not novel to the Swiss doctors as I needed them also for more important stuff, when I was living in Zurich and having a family doctor was easy. But here seems there was some sort of error or over inflated bill for stuff I did not have really remember to have received. (While this whole thing of doctors in Neuchatel, the canton of whatches, seems a broken mechanism to me).

In fact I called the Medbase, they told me I paid the additional fees and procedures beause was treated as an urgency, while clearly was not.

I called Helsana, and except confirming that was not fair not saying that I was received as an urgent, since they visited me, they provided the service and there is not much I can do about it.

So, coming to my question, is there any "patient" (aka customer) support for complaints and things like what happened in my bill? Or the only solution would be a lawyer, that of course won't be convenient in this case?

Any useful experience to share?

2
What was the diagnostic?

Sprain of which degree (1st, 2nd, 3rd), bone fissure or broken bone?

3
The “urgent” fee is probably about 25-50 francs! You want to lawyer up over that? My Dr charges it if you walk in and ask to see a Dr without phoning to make an appointment first, guess it’s the same with you.

4
You say you’ve asked about the specific charge but have you actually challenged them on the time spent? I recently got an inflated bill that suggested I had spent the whole time I was physically in the practice with the doctor. I politely pointed this out, highlighting I had had to wait to be seen for 15 mins, whilst the doc was seeing other patients, that I had also had blood withdrawn after finishing with the doctor (for which there was a date stamp on the test results) and asked them to double check. And then I got a revised much less inflated bill.

5
Measuring your blood pressure?

That's a good thing. In the UK every time you see a doc they take your blood pressure as catching high blood pressure early saves lives.

6
It seems to be standard that they check it, however, (from personal experience of presenting with a mangled finger and in loads of pain) measuring a BP when you’re already in pain and distressed is a bit pointless. My usually healthy BP was pretty elevated in the circumstances. Thinking further - maybe this in itself is to check that it’s not elevated so high it’s put you in danger.

7
I have white coat hypertension - i.e. the very act of having my BP taken elevates. But I hadn't had it taken for several years, and then at a checkup, I was 180/100 - that meant a 20% risk of having a stroke in the next five years.

I now have my own machine. And since I exercise regularly and have some pills, my BP is at a good healthy level.

8
That’s exactly why they do it.

9

I don't know. He made me push the feet and he was holding it with his hand, making resistance. He felt was strong enough and let me go saying there is nothing evident he could help with. As I went back in Italy, my doctor said was just a small inflammation for some extra activity I had, to wait and see if pass on its own (it did). So was nothing.

Why you say I want to suit them with a lawyer? I explicitly said that is not worth, but I would really like to know if that is the only way t osort things out, sometimes.

Against phone companies abuses and scams, the customers have various associations to rely upon, I think is legit toat least think the same in this case.

Also the doctor I had in ZH was a walk in clinic, there was no over price. I wish I could just overpay and have a real doctor here. I'll keep searching, btw.

PS: I have never had pressure measured in any clinic, unless I was making specific exams (I am less than 35, skinny and athletic).

10

Ah, English Forum's favorite response: "You got screwed, but since you just got a little bit screwed, just accept that this is the norm in Switzerland."

11
No, I just thought talking about lawyers was a bit excessive.

12
You should contact them and ask to remove the entry or provide an explanation if it was not urgent.

13
If you go to Hospital without going to a GP first, you will be charged for 'Urgences' element. Irrespective of what you say or it being urgent or not. You should have gone to GP first.

14
All medical bills are inflated... TIS and there is nothing we can do about it, except pay, pay and pay.

15

Maybe I’ve become Swissified but to be honest for any relatively simple visit to the doctor I would expect a bill for around chf150-200 so I wouldn’t consider your invoice out of the ordinary.

If I wanted to challenge an invoice I would write a letter to the clinic asking for clarification and inform Helsana. Not sure if that is the correct approach though.

Also, just in case it helps - I have the same insurance model as you and what I normally do is call my insurer to get the ok and then visit the Basel Üniversitätsspital’s walk-in clinic - https://www.unispital-basel.ch/mediz…klinik…never waited more than 30-min and the service/treatment has always been excellent. Not sure if there is something similar in Neuchatel?

16
Except that I had to go there exactly because I have no GP and cannot find one. And that Telmed told me to go there. What should I have done?

From ZH to NE, talking and asking and persona experience,it is in average 70-90 per visit. 200 would be too much. There are hospitals that accept walk in, I guess might be the same surprise, but I have never tried.

17
I believe even if he had a GP and managed to get a same day appointment they could have still applied the emergency surcharge.

Our old (now retired) GP used to keep a couple of appointments free for just that scenario, people who needed to see him that day rather than just a routine appointment.

I believe the Medbase place is a medical centre staffed largely by GPs rather than a hospital. There is only one in Neuchâtel in Courcelles but I believe there was a second one due to open in Vauseyon in January.

18

In this case you clearly had no other option but to go to one of the walk in medical centres and your insurer clearly has an agreement with Medbase if that is who the told you to go to and there is only one Medbase clinic in Neuchâtel (Courcelles) unless the Vauseyon centre is now open.

There are other options you could have chosen for a walk-in service. The medical centre at Cadolles or the Hopital de la Providence both have walk-in clinics and they are open at weekends too but I’m not sure they would have been much cheaper.

If you go to any of the clinics as a walk-in you can expect to pay the ‘emergency’ surcharge as it is classed as same day treatment.

What you need to do if you have the GP model is to go through the list of approved doctors provided by Helsane and contact them one by one until you find one who is accepting new patients. There are doctors who are accepting patients, you just have to find them and it can take some patience to do so.

Alternatively you could register at one if the medical centres on the Helsana list.

https://www.helsana.ch/fr/prives/ass…e-famille.html

Or in English if you prefer

https://www.helsana.ch/en/individual…titioners.html

As an aside being young, fit and healthy doesn’t necessarily preclude blood pressure issues so it’s never a bad thing to have it measured even if it is just to determine the baseline measurement for you.

A standard GP visit generally costs between 60 and 150 chf here depending on what they do.

19
If that was all I had to pay for the emergency veterinarian I would be delighted!

20
i have literally NEVER paid 70 CHF for a doc visit. The very minimum before anything starts would be 90 at our Medix in Zürich. And anything else adds up fast.

70CHF bills are for cals or checking lab results and communicating them etc.

Like others have suggested, write to the clinic and exain politely your pov and ask them to clarify the invoice. This may work very quickly and easily.