Doctors are killing it

Dylan_G said:
MSA has never made sense to me. Comprehensive hospital plan, most definitely, but MSA?

You're paying them the same amount that you could be saving yourself.

Let us say your MSA contribution is R500 a month... that would be an MSA of R6000 a year.

You go for some kind of treatment, you claim from MA, and the practitioner charges as much as they can as it's "coming out of MA". Let's say it costs R1000 for the treatment at MA rates. You could go for that treatment 6 times in a year and then your MSA is depleted.

If you go for the same treatment but pay cash, the rates are normally lower (ie the practitioner charges less). If let's say, the practitioner charges 20% less, it's then R800 for the treatment. You could go for that treatment 7.5 times in a year or rather, save R1200 by paying cash.

Unless I'm misunderstanding something here?
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Sounds great in theory but I've found the cash/medical aid rates are very similar.

The full MSA is also available upfront. So if everything goes wrong in January, you have that full MSA available right there. If you're saving monthly, you only have that month's contribution.
 
semaphore said:
That's your problem, you shovel medication like its candy. You've made your body dependent on drugs and you're too much of a soy boy to fight stuff off naturally. I'm all for medication, but seeing your posts over the last two years you suffer from a serious case of hypochondria and most likely Munchausen's.
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Doctors love people like him. When you become dependent on meds, guess who you have to go to for a script...
 
RedViking said:
And does it affect your life? As long as he doesn't drink instant coffee.
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Yes, people like him are the reason for resistant strains. Doctors over-prescribing medicine for hypochondriacs.

.
 
Tomtomtom said:
I'm not worried about them but I think you'll find their expenses make your eyes water as well.
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Definitely.

So even though vets and docs charge quite a bit for 15 min. of their time, and for reasons given in this thread.

I just wonder why we don't want to pay the same for other professional services.
 
Nicholas Lisse said:
Yeah, malpractice insurance isn’t a joke.
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A lot of builders and architects can't afford insurance due to the low rates people expect to pay. I can't even see how they afford the software they need to use a. Well, here in KZN anyways. What do you think happens to them when something goes wrong or the being blamed for something......
 
Jaxie said:
Doctors actually don't make that much. I actually think that GP's are royally screwed over by Medical Aids as the amount that they will pay for a consultation hasn't increased by much over the past 15-20 years.

Let's input some real values in.

1) Reimbursement for a 15-20 min consultation R400-R450.
2) The GP works for 6.5 hours a day, 5 days a week. 1 hour for a lunch break and 0.5 hours of work for the time that they have to pay for their holiday when they're not getting paid assuming they take about 15-20 days of leave a year.

That works out to R156000 a month. Bad debt in a medical practice makes up at least one third of fees.
Other monthly expenses:
Secretary/receptionist- R15000
Rent- R6000
Malpractice insurance for a GP- R2000
Professional and association fees- R1000 (averaged monthly)
Billing company at 5% of collections- R5000
Consumables- R2000

From what is left over they still have to pay tax.

The average GP comes home with around 50-60 k a month. Much less if you're not as busy. It's not worth it at all if you consider another professional's pay with the equivalent qualifications and years of experience.
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Our doctor now charges us his new rates, much higher than the medical aid rate. The difference that the medical aid has not paid he bills us as a "shortfall".
 
RedViking said:
A lot of builders and architects can't afford insurance due to the low rates people expect to pay. I can't even see how they afford the software they need to use a. Well, here in KZN anyways. What do you think happens to them when something goes wrong or the being blamed for something......
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Don’t need to tell me mate. I’ve grown up in a doctors household.

I know exactly what happens when ahit hits the fan and you are sitting there without insurance. Not worth it.
 
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