July 16, 2011 (2)

I just received my statement for charges from my insurance carrier for my Zometa Infusion on 6/27/2011. I have a Medicare A, B, D plus supplemental provided by my former employer. For the Zometa Infusion, the clinic billed Medicare $3609.00, however of this, Medicare excluded $2,583.23 and only paid the clinic $976.27. My co-pay was $50.00. This included the infusion plus all of the blood work. Since this was my 25th infusion, billings would have been over $90,000 with actual payments being only about $24,400 and my out of pocket being $1250 over a 2 1/4 year time period.

While I don't like to pay more, a $50.00 per infusion co-pay is unrealistically low. Doubling or tripling the co-pay is no big deal.

American seniors are treated like royalty; and the working folks with children must bear the pain of taxation and much higher health insurance. Virtually every senior I know is living like a king taking cruises, weeks at the beach, dinner at nice places, new cars, and so forth.