Of all of the Technology in the World....

[Dhalin]

So about a month ago, I had some surgery on my neck to remove a swollen lymph node. Turns out that it was negative for cancer (whew!).

So during the past few weeks, I've been receiving all kinds of bills, a bill from the doctor, a bill from the anesthesiologist, a bill for supplies used, blah blah blah.

Thankfully, my health insurance paid 90% of all that, but still leaves me to pay a little of it.

Anyways, the whole meat of the rant is this:

Considering the vast technological improvements over the last, oh, 10-20 years in the field of medicine, how they can use nuclear medicine to see inside of your body for things like CT Scans, MRIs, etc, and how good surgeons are getting at removing small things from your body with the least amount of damage done to the surrounding areas, can anyone care to explain to me why...

......they can't make use of technology that is fifteen plus years old, namely, Online Bill Paying!?

Seriously.

Out of all of these bills I've received, only two of them were payable online by credit card. Two. Out of 6.

Any Mom-and-Pop shop can get Point-of-Sale machine and sign up a contract with a carrier to be able to accept Credit Card/Debit Card transactions, why can't a medical facility that processes hundreds of thousands of dollars a month do the same?

Honestly.

Forcing me to snail-mail checks (an outdated system I wish would just DIE already) in this day and age only shows laziness. I'd rather just log on, input my CC details, and click a Pay Now button and then be done with it. Or even let me call the stupid thing in, but nooo.....

This one bill?

$8.

I'm not kidding.

They wasted what, 45-50 cents, to mail me this bill (the envelope probably cost 5 cents, too), an I have to waste 45-50 cents (not counting the price of the check, those aren't free you know) to mail it back, not to mention the transit time.

So, for that $8 bill, $1-2 is being wasted on paper, postage, and the check/check processing.

Medical Billing needs to wake up and smell the year 2011 and set up a website or online bill paying system. If some little mom-and-pop store can do it, a huge medical facility can do it too.

Actually, not only medical billing, but ANYONE who doesn't have this by now, Should.

Heck, it took my _Phone Company_ the longest time to come up with an online/automatic directly-out-of-checking account bill pay system.

And my previous health insurance? Yup, they insisted on the outdated check in the mail system instead of setting up an automatic billpay.

[Shian]

This needs to be posted on a joke site. Is there a consumer version of notalwaysright?

[Knossos]

Consider the possibility of tax evasion using non electronic payment methods..

Knossos

[Dragonboy]

hehe Knossos... That is a good one.
Just in case Knossos isn't right think about the money it costs a company to get a complete computer upgrade across the board... While it is a little BS that paper checks are still used upgrading costs loads of cash and I can imagine you rather see they buy a CT or MRI then a new billing system IF the hospital is not really running in the black numbers.

[Frith-Rae]

Yes for giant systems like hospital billing, it really is a matter of "cost".

For mom and pop places, they can "computerize" on their own, sometimes for even as you note, very little to no cost tot hem.

Coming from a private practice that was in the middle of swtiching to "all computer/no paper" - keeping in mind this was a practice of just about 10 people - it was costing THOUSANDS of dollars to make that conversion, not counting the hundreds of man hours to convert the paper documents into the computer. And that was for 10 people in the practice. Ultimately we had to give up going "full computer" and just keep appointments/billing through the computer system. The program alone just to have appointments/billing in there cost thousands of dollars.

So that's the issue you're running into with large hospitals. You're talking about hundreds to thousands of employees and thousands to tens of thousands (to even hundreds of thousands possibly) of patient records/billing etc. On systems that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy and have installed.

I feel your pain - the hospitals around here (including one of the top 10 med schools int he country) do not have online bill payment - but they do provide a blank on the bill to put in your CC info to pay with instead of check.

But the other fact of the matter is - Dhalin - as much as you feel the "snail mail" needs to be done away with - that's just not going to be possible. There are still peole in this country who don't have daily internet access or computer access. You've got to realize they have to use a system accessible to EVERYONE, not just the privliged (and yes unless you want to put your private info into the library computer it is still really a privilige to have daily internet/computer access..). I won't even get into the whole thing about magazines/coupons etc. delivered to your house via snail-mail. Quite frankly I don't WANT emagazines, and I'm not alone.

So instead of providing both systems, they provide the one they know everyone can use - even if its easier for many to have the online bill payment as well.

But I'm sure when money is in the excess again they'll invest in the online billing. It just really comes down to how progressive the REST of their accounting system is that helps them know wether they can handle the results from the online billing.
But yes it is an inconvence.

Just be thankful that bill is only for 8 bucks as you send it, and not for 8K... Focus on the blessings!