How You're Wasting Money

Wow!

The bills are coming in.

After I had my baby I went through a series of unfortunate health scares/events and now the bills are piling up.

I love insurance when it comes to paying the hospital bill. Insead of a $10k hospital bill it went down to $3k (and that's just hospital fees not my OB! This includes a $40 ibuprofen pill...and after four of them ($160-worth) you bet your butt my husband brought my $3.50 ibuprofen bottle from home. 

A few weeks after my pregnancy my body started to slim down, the water weight went away but my right leg was pretty swollen and painful, I was very fatigued (I had a newborn) and still bleeding pretty heavy six weeks postpartum (abnormal). The vaginal bleeding is supposed to slow down and stop by then but turned out it was products of conception which led to another hospital visit for a procedure.

Ayway back to the story. I ended up seeing a Nurse Practicioner for a DVT rule out. He also ordered a CBC w/ diff (due to the bleeding) and ferritin. I also had a cyst on my wrist (he did an X-ray-->not really needed for a cyst but it's part of ruling things out). Which Ortho also ended up doing an X-ray before he even saw me and never even looked at the other X-ray (can you say $-maker?)

Sooooooo.....I compared the cost of my one time visit.

No joke this one time visit was slighly more than a whole years worth of my Direct Primary Care membership and pretty much unlimited visits with yoru Physician. 

Let's break down the cost so you can see how wasteful the system is.

Level 4 charge by NP to see me one time: $315
3 view X-ray: $90
CBC w/ diff: $50 (this caused my heart to flutter when you fidn out the actual cost).
Ferritin: $60 (lol->ridiculous).
Ultrasound unilateral to rule out DVT: $520 (what the heck!)

Total cost $1,035 (this was more than my ticket to Bosnia. You can literally go across the world for this one visit).

My insurance covered all but $384.97 (mind you this is still expensive for a one time visit). No wonder people don't follow up and get lost to care!!

Let's not forget the $1,000 we pay to insurance per month to have coverage.

Now let's get to DPC cost and blow your mind away.

1mo membership for my age group: $85 (more than one visit).
3 veiw Xray $50
CBC $5.00 (not $50 and this is with a markup.
Ferritin $5.00 NOT $60, again $5 is with a markup.
Unilateral US $150 (NOT $520)!!

Total one time visit cost w/ Insurance: $384.97
Total one time visit cost without Insurance: $1,035.00
Total DPC cost w/ one month membership: $295

Tell me DPC is not worth it even if you have "great" Blue Cross & Blue Shield insurance!!

I encourage all of you to find a DPC doc and especially if you have chronic medical conditions!!