首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
When my wife, Meg, suffered a severe stroke that immobilized her left side, I knew we would be facing a grueling odyssey invol
When my wife, Meg, suffered a severe stroke that immobilized her left side, I knew we would be facing a grueling odyssey invol
admin
2021-10-13
12
问题
When my wife, Meg, suffered a severe stroke that immobilized her left side, I knew we would be facing a grueling odyssey involving several hospitals, dozens of doctors and countless therapy sessions. What I wasn’t prepared for was the American Way of Managed Health Care, a system that is bureaucratic and often dysfunctional. Yes, medical practitioners in the United States are generally considered among the best in the world, and my wife primarily had first-rate care, but their back-office practice—a business dominated by third-party payers—is badly run at worst and woefully confusing at best.
Meg’s stroke occurred while we were vacationing in the south of France last summer. After being stabilized in the emergency room of a small hospital, she was transferred immediately to a large teaching hospital, where she received excellent treatment in a world-renowned stroke pavilion. When I received the bill for her
-week stay at the Pasteur Hospital in Nice, I asked the deputy administrator for an itemized statement. I knew I’d need to show it to our health-insurance company—the one-page invoice for more than €20,000. The administrator was puzzled. There were only two daily rates, he explained, one for soins intensifs—or intensive care—and another for non-acute care. There were no extra charges; the numerous ambulance transfers, MRI brain scans, X-rays and assorted tests associated with any serious injury or illness were all-inclusive. In fact, the only supplement was €10.67—about $13—a day for food which, although not three-star bistro quality, was certainly a bargain, and better than anything you can eat in a U.S. hospital.
I’m not arguing that the French healthcare system should be a world benchmark, but compared with what we faced when we returned home, it was a model of simplicity and efficiency. Of course, everything in American medical care is a la carte, and the invoices are so dense with codes and abbreviations, it’s a wonder anyone can decipher them. I often wonder, how much does this cost the American public annually?
At one New York hospital, we received bills from doctors we’d never heard of, including one who charged for an office visit when Meg couldn’t even get out of bed. The managed care provider’s computer sent him a check without question. Had he not billed us for the co-payment I never would have noticed the error. Over the past few months, I spent hours clearing up these kinds of mistakes. A doctor friend who heads a department in a large hospital admitted that these kinds of complaints are all too common.
Meg’s medical tab has reached nearly $300,000, which seems monumental, even given the nature of her catastrophic injury. Thankfully, we were covered for most of it. Yet $90,000 of that figure had little or nothing to do with patient care. Roughly 30 cents of each health-care dollar goes to administration, or the processing of paperwork. If that figure could be reduced by a third, even $30,000 would go a long way toward extending her rehab treatments. (Meg’s 2004 benefits have run out.)
When Meg was finally discharged after spending 56 days in hospitals, we received co-payment bills for her medical equipment, including an itemized statement for every extra on her wheelchair (no, the brake extensions, foot pedals, armrest, anti-tip bars, seat and seat belt are not included). But the provider billed us two ways, one for leasing the chair and another for purchase. Even now, after numerous phone calls, I still don’t know whether we own or are renting the wheelchair.
The outpatient rehab therapy sessions presented their own set of challenges. The hospital sent a number of bills—printed in alphanumeric codes—for additional thousands of dollars even though we made the proper co-payments at the time of treatment. Billing administrators barely raised an eyebrow when I told them I had spent too much time on hold and would no longer bother calling to dispute the charges. (We have since received automated early-morning phone calls asking us to contact the hospital.)
I’ve checked with others who have had protracted negotiations with health-care providers and insurers over complex medical treatment. They echo my frustration. Why is it incumbent on the recipient to spend countless hours rectifying the medical administration’s mistakes? How much extra does this process add to the nation’s annual health-care bill?
Medicare—our government-subsidized system that cares for the elderly—has a much better record in administrative costs. It spends between three and four cents of every dollar on paperwork and processing. A single-payer system is easier and cheaper to run. We’ve had a two-tier health-care system in the United States for a while, and only one tier works. Isn’t it time for man-aged care to slim down and help its patients get better instead of burdening them with needlessly expensive paperwork?
Which of the following concerning the French medical system is NOT true according to the author?
选项
A、The hospital provides good and cheap food.
B、The hospital provides excellent treatment to patients.
C、The management system is simple and efficient.
D、The one-page invoice is not as clear as an itemized statement.
答案
D
解析
本题考查对第二段的理解。由文章可知,选项A、B和C都被提及,故排除;法国医院只给病人开具一张发票,作者的目的是要表扬这种做法的可取之处,并未说明是否不及详细清单那么清楚,所以选项D与原文不符,故为正确答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/d9kMFFFM
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
CulturalDifferencesbetweenEastandWestI.FactorsleadingtotheculturaldifferencesA.Differentculture【T1】______【T1】_
StudyActivitiesinUniversityInordertohelpcollegeanduniversitystudentsintheprocessoflearning,fourkeystudyac
StudyActivitiesinUniversityInordertohelpcollegeanduniversitystudentsintheprocessoflearning,fourkeystudyac
PASSAGETWOWhatistheconclusionofthelastparagraph?
CharacteristicsqfAmericanCultureI.PunctualityA.Goingtothetheater:be【T1】______twentyminutesprior【T1】______B.
CharacteristicsqfAmericanCultureI.PunctualityA.Goingtothetheater:be【T1】______twentyminutesprior【T1】______B.
CharacteristicsqfAmericanCultureI.PunctualityA.Goingtothetheater:be【T1】______twentyminutesprior【T1】______B.
NoEnglishmanbelievesinworkingfrombooklearning.Hesuspectseverythingnew,anddislikesit,unlesshecanbecompelledb
NoEnglishmanbelievesinworkingfrombooklearning.Hesuspectseverythingnew,anddislikesit,unlesshecanbecompelledb
Properarrangementofclassroomspaceisimportanttoencouraginginteraction.Today’scorporationshirehumanengineeringspec
随机试题
甲公司是ABC会计师事务所的常年审计客户,主要从事医疗器械设备的生产和销售。A类产品为大中型医疗器械设备,主要销往医院;B类产品为小型医疗器械设备,主要通过经销商销往药店。A注册会计师负责审计甲公司2015年度财务报表。资料一:A注册会计师在审计工作底
估计总体均数所在的范围应采用
(2006)车库、停车场等车流量较多的场地。其车辆出入口距学校建筑出入口不应小于()。
采用非吸气型喷射装置的泡沫喷淋保护非水溶性甲、乙、丙类液体时,应选用()。
2012年1月18日,荣昌商贸有限责任公司(以下简称荣昌公司)从龙腾公司购进一批货物,同时向龙腾公司开具一张支票,用于货款结算。荣昌公司开具支票时。将付款人名称填写为“荣晶商贸有限责任公司”,出票日期填写为“贰零壹壹年壹月拾捌日”,收款人未填写。后经财务部
下列关于上交所科创板保荐人持续督导制度的表述正确的是()。
在基金()的基础上,再加一定的手续费,就可以得出基金证券的买价和卖价。
某税务师事务所2016年3月对某企业2015年度纳税情况审核中发现多预提厂房租金100000元,该企业已结账,不考虑税费问题,需作的调账分录不正确的是()。
管理信息系统的开发战略要求管理信息系统要有一个()以指导它的各子系统的实现。
A、TheywerebothchairpersonsoftheStudents’Union.B、Theyhaveknowneachothersincetheirschooldays.C、Theyaregoingtoh
最新回复
(
0
)