The Flawed ATM Coupon

I once picked up a coupon voucher inside a gas station ATM and used it to schedule the limo for my wedding back in 2000. Odd decision for sure and a big mistake in hindsight. But not all ATM vouchers are created equal….

So Nebraska internist Marvin Bittner once told me he ended up buying one of these imaging vouchers through MDSave to cover an MRI his doctor thought was necessary to identify suspicious areas for targeting during a prostate biopsy. And who said doctors weren’t cost conscious?  I told Dr. B that using any sort of discount voucher is usually trouble – I should know, having used the one I found in a gas station ATM vestibule to pay for the limo that never showed up on my wedding day.  Still haven’t lived that one down!  The night before Dr. Bittner’s scheduled MRI Aetna called to deny the scan, arguing his results didn’t meet coverage criteria. Bittner says his doctor was ‘using judgment’ after a series of suspicious PSA results. For what it’s worth, clinicians we talked to in the UK say they routinely do prostate MRIs before these biopsies. But rather than leave Dr. Bittner fledgling in the wind, the hospital where his doctor works told Bittner to buy an MDSave voucher to cover the MRI at a cost of about $150 less than he would have paid for the deductible had he submitted the claim to Aetna. The story ended well. No cancer. But it illustrates some oddities: (1) A US insurance company not covering something that the UK National Health Service does cover, despite its reputation and (2) The MDSave Groupon-like voucher for the entire MRI coming in at a lower cost than a deductible. I suppose a good rule of thumb is picking up vouchers for healthcare reasons can be a good thing in the right hands, but if you’re using them to get you to the church on time, maybe not so much.