The Private Hospital Dilema. Spin Off Thread.

[virginprune]

This doctor has his own surgery but visits his inpatients at the three private hospitals here. I assumed this cash thing was because they are self employed and do their own accounts, which fits in with your assessment Jack.

[scott h]

Knock on wood, I am pretty healthy, my wife how every has the normal range of middle age female problems so we visit the doctors regularly. Since we have Tri care insurance we use Asian Hospital in Las Pinas. A good private hospital and we have no complaints.

 

This is just an observation I have made. Right next door (basically sharing the same parking lot and entry road) is a Government public hospital. At Asian Hospital I see people parking very nice cars, or being dropped off by drivers in BMW's and Mercedes. The public hospital has a covered walk way from the Jeepney loading area. I pretty much drew my conclusions from that observation.

[Mike S]

I guess I was one of the lucky ones as all my doctors gave me receipts for all their charges ..... we did however pay cash although we weren't asked to ..... the surgeon did ask us to pay for the pacemaker the day after it was put in as he had to pay the company that manufactures it .... so that was p180,000 .....

 

Also just some additional advise that helped us is we put up p20,000 security with the pharmacy so J didn't have to keep going down and paying for and picking up my meds ..... they just sent them to the nurses station  :thumbsup:

:cheersty:

[chris49]

This is very good information. But I am a little confused. Am I getting this right, you are suggesting to save some money on non-life threatening injuries or illness we should enter into government hospitals and get acceptable treatment? Sorry but sometimes my thick skull misses things.

What I meant was go first to the government hospital in all cases except life threatening emergencies. Buy yourself some time to consider whether to go private or not. One major difference is comfort....govt hospital in a 9=10 bed ward with one CR vs a private room in a private hospital. If you could stick that out for 1-2 nights you would save a bundle.

Then get your wife running out to buy some of the things they Rx rather than getting the stuff directly from the private hospital and paying through the nose.

[chris49]

So what would you recommend as a minimum now for a medical reserve? Per person or any difference for family? My wife has been telling me P 1m. I was thinking this may be sufficient but maybe it should be much more.

Plenty of us don't have that, and it's really dependent on many factors. $10,000 US or 500 k in pesos could get you some good first line treatment but for eg bypass surgery or invasive brain surgery I would try to get back to Australia/USA first option.

[chris49]

This doctor has his own surgery but visits his inpatients at the three private hospitals here. I assumed this cash thing was because they are self employed and do their own accounts, which fits in with your assessment Jack.

That's the usual arrangement and they can ask you any amount they want. Hand to hand tax free. The government was in the process of addressing that (a Dr. declares income at the same level as a school teacher), but the investigation stopped dead.

Remember the investigation into Manny Pacquiao's US taxes, that one disappeared also

[jpbago]

In our 2 experiences with private hospital dengue cases, Doctor's Hospital billed it all in one but Riverside billed the doctor's part separate. The doctor gave us a discount to pay him in cash. He said that it takes 3 months for him to get paid if we pay it all in one bill at the hospital. Likely true, but also, the cash went into his pocket but we did get a receipt.

[Nephi]

Having COPD from smoking for many years (no longer smoke) I have been hospitalized perhaps 5 times since living here. Each time, I have used St. Raphael Med Center in Dau close to Angeles City. Although nothing fancy; I have found the service and care top notch. Also I have a good internal medicine doctor as my attending physician and he is better than any doctor I've had back home in the States. With a new wing added on and a state of the art ER, they do very well. Only down side there is the food.

 

Three years ago I had double cataract surgery and had an excellent eye surgeon at Angeles Medical Center in the old downtown. Again, great place and an excellent eye surgeon.

At that time my youngest daughter was just 9yrs old and since she is going to be a neonatologist (doctor for premature babies)  the doctor allowed her in the operating room and she was able to assist in the surgery as well as take a few photos. Good experience all around and turned out to be a fun morning.

 

For simple stuff there is a small clinic in our town but use it mostly for buying meds. My youngest daughter also gives me my yearly flu vaccine injection and pneumonia injection every three years and that saves a higher cost at a doctors office for us.

 

Nephi

 

[earthdome]

Having COPD from smoking for many years (no longer smoke) I have been hospitalized perhaps 5 times since living here. Each time, I have used St. Raphael Med Center in Dau close to Angeles City. Although nothing fancy; I have found the service and care top notch. Also I have a good internal medicine doctor as my attending physician and he is better than any doctor I've had back home in the States. With a new wing added on and a state of the art ER, they do very well. Only down side there is the food.

 

Three years ago I had double cataract surgery and had an excellent eye surgeon at Angeles Medical Center in the old downtown. Again, great place and an excellent eye surgeon.

At that time my youngest daughter was just 9yrs old and since she is going to be a neonatologist (doctor for premature babies)  the doctor allowed her in the operating room and she was able to assist in the surgery as well as take a few photos. Good experience all around and turned out to be a fun morning.

 

For simple stuff there is a small clinic in our town but use it mostly for buying meds. My youngest daughter also gives me my yearly flu vaccine injection and pneumonia injection every three years and that saves a higher cost at a doctors office for us.

 

Nephi

 

2013-10-02 07.26.19.jpg20131002_080317.jpg20131002_090559.jpgIMGP3489.JPGIMGP3493.JPG

 

I was diagnosed with COPD the fall of 2014. At the time I had lived in the Philippines almost 2 years, most of that time in Baguio. I moved back to the USA the following spring. It is a relief to breath cleaner air without all the air pollution in the Philippines.

 

How do you think the air pollution in the Philippines affects your COPD?

[Nephi]

 

Having COPD from smoking for many years (no longer smoke) I have been hospitalized perhaps 5 times since living here. Each time, I have used St. Raphael Med Center in Dau close to Angeles City. Although nothing fancy; I have found the service and care top notch. Also I have a good internal medicine doctor as my attending physician and he is better than any doctor I've had back home in the States. With a new wing added on and a state of the art ER, they do very well. Only down side there is the food.

 

Three years ago I had double cataract surgery and had an excellent eye surgeon at Angeles Medical Center in the old downtown. Again, great place and an excellent eye surgeon.

At that time my youngest daughter was just 9yrs old and since she is going to be a neonatologist (doctor for premature babies)  the doctor allowed her in the operating room and she was able to assist in the surgery as well as take a few photos. Good experience all around and turned out to be a fun morning.

 

For simple stuff there is a small clinic in our town but use it mostly for buying meds. My youngest daughter also gives me my yearly flu vaccine injection and pneumonia injection every three years and that saves a higher cost at a doctors office for us.

 

Nephi

 

2013-10-02 07.26.19.jpg20131002_080317.jpg20131002_090559.jpgIMGP3489.JPGIMGP3493.JPG

 

I was diagnosed with COPD the fall of 2014. At the time I had lived in the Philippines almost 2 years, most of that time in Baguio. I moved back to the USA the following spring. It is a relief to breath cleaner air without all the air pollution in the Philippines.

 

How do you think the air pollution in the Philippines affects your COPD?

 

We live in a very rural area of Central Luzon and have very little in the way of noticeable pollution so the effect on my health is minable for the most part. I drive a motor trike for family transportation by choice and avoid being behind or near vehicles that smoke as much as possible. My biggest worry or concern is catching a cold that inevitably winds up in the lungs. So I try to avoid large crowds in small places just to be safe. So far so good but this is home and I would never consider leaving to return to the States or to live anywhere else. Only change I would make would be to have listened to my parents years ago and never smoked that first cigarette. It's terrible to have to spend about P12,000 per month in meds just to stay alive.

Will you be able to return and live here again or are you staying there by choice?

 

 

Nephi 

Edited February 4, 2016 by Nephi