https://archive.is/9yGY1
"When the bill for the well visit came, my wife, who is her mother’s legal guardian, noticed two unfamiliar charges. One was a $150 “facility” fee. The other, for $40, was itemized as the “Evaluation and Management (E/M) add-on.” Almost $200 tacked on to a bill for a well visit. My wife isn’t one to tolerate being nickel-and-dimed. She wrote a polite note to the clinic inquiring as to the nature and purpose of the charges.
Its reply is what irritated me.
“The ‘Evaluation and Management (E/M)’ add-on is used to account for the complexity of E/M services that serve as the continuing focal point for all needed health care services or with medical care services that are part of ongoing care related to a patient’s single, serious condition, or a complex condition.”
Verbatim. Because I work with words for a living, I am hard-wired to try to untangle sentences like this. My brain immediately begins breaking down the parts and reassembling them in a way that a person moderately familiar with the English language might find decipherable. I defy you to tell me what this blithering piffle actually means."
