Highway Robbery!!!!

OMG!!! I just found out how much Earl's little excursion to the ER is going to cost us! Now, take into consideration that they really didn't do anything to help him besides giving him an IV and rehydrating him. In the end, they told us the same thing that our Dr. had told us (for $90), that he had pneumonia. Oh, and the anitbiotics aren't working yet, just wait it out.

The bill comes to $1719.56! Oh, and that doesn't include the physician's bill or the radiologists bill. The xray cost $216. The IV cost $181, and that's not including what they put in him. To put a little deal on his finger to cheach his pulse and to do a blood pressure reading was $210. The blood tests came to almost $450.

This is highway robbery! In one fail swoop, this hospital has made me a believer in a socialistic healthcare plan.

The only upside is that *if* we can pay it within 30 days of discharge, they will knock it down 50%. How freakin' generous!

Well, there's my rant for the day!

There is something so wrong with our system when it comes to health care coverage. If the insurance companies weren't so :censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor::censor: big and powerful the small people might have a chance to get good coverage.

I know after my horsey accident and we got our bill at the end of that recovery path, the amount of the bill alone almost gave poor Mike a heart attack! $5,000.00 plus! We have it down to a couple of thousand now..... People are asking me (around here) if I am ever going to ride again. Privately I think, not until we get decent health insurance!

The sad thing is, while I can't really afford this (we will find a way, though!), I really can't afford insurance on Earl. To get him on my work insurance plan would be about $400 per month. Even with the Dr. bills standing at close to $2000 (we've paid our regular Dr, though, so we don't owe that much. We will once we get the rest of the ER bills.), that would have been gone in 5 months' worth of premiums. I've been at my job for almost 2 years now, so had I gotten him on my plan when I started we would have paid out almost $10,000 in premiums. Sad to say, this is still cheaper than insurance!

MA, I know what you went through for your accident. It was intense! Not to belittle your bill at all but why is it with all the actual TREATMENT you got, the bill was around $5000, while Earl gets next to nothing done and his bill is almost $2000? This is just messed up!

Originally posted by valanhb
MA, I know what you went through for your accident. It was intense! Not to belittle your bill at all

but why is it with all the actual TREATMENT you got, the bill was around $5000, while Earl gets next to nothing done and his bill is almost $2000? This is just messed up!

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As far as I understand, the high costs for next to no work is a result of agreements hospitals and insurance companies have with each other. The prices for services are set extremely high, but the hospitals charge the insurance only a fraction of the price. If you have insurance, you're lucky. If you don't, you have to pay the artificially high price.

I'm extremely lucky, working at a hospital, to have total health coverage (except for dental, vision and any elective procedures). My colonoscopy was totally paid for by my insurance, but when I got the bill I was stunned. For example, I had three biopsies done. The regular charge was over $100 per biopsy. The hospital charged my insurance about $40 for the first, and $1 (!!!!!!) for the other two. But, if I hadn't had insurance, I would have had to pay the $300 for the biopsies.

I agree, our insurance and health systems are badly broken and need to be fixed. But it seems to me the insurance companies are too powerful, and will block any real reform.

Originally posted by okeefecl
As far as I understand, the high costs for next to no work is a result of agreements hospitals and insurance companies have with each other. The prices for services are set extremely high, but the hospitals charge the insurance only a fraction of the price. If you have insurance, you're lucky. If you don't, you have to pay the artificially high price.

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Um, shouldn't that be the other way around??? I have already paid my insurance company for many months when I didn't need anything done. (OK, my employer pays them, but they still get paid!) So why is it that when you can't afford insurance you have to pay extra high costs??? Seems totally ass-backward to me!

Talk about a wake up call! Come to Canada Heidi! I have a spare bedroom I can rent to you for a fair price!


I couldn't even begin to tell you how much my mother's medical bills would have been back in the '70's if she lived in the States. Let's see......2 years being hospitalized, in home care, medical supplies. Eeeekkkk! Thank god we have coverage here in Canada.

Now that's just nuts! A self-pay pays twice what the insurance company does? How frustrating!

Go over the bill with a fine-toothed comb and check for any charges that aren't correct - I've been billed before when I was uninsured for services that weren't performed. Call the billing dept. and tell them you're paying out of pocket, and ask if they offer any additional discounts. Sometimes also they'll write off some of the bill if you're willing to pay promptly. Perhaps you can take out a loan to pay the bill - the cash discount might be less than the interest you'd pay on a loan or line of credit from the bank.

I wonder if they just jack up the prices in hopes of getting some of the money they want, to make up for the insurance companies discounts & the uninsured who can't or won't pay their bills?

Another vote for socialistic health care! I pay $350/month for health insurance just for myself, and it has ridiculously high copays and a limited drug list.

I hope your husband's feeling better!

Tess, she is sending me an itemized statement. They say there are 2 IV bags, and I know he only got one, but that's the smallest charge on there! She read me the items over the phone. Sad thing is, I have no idea what blood tests they performed. I know they took about 6 vials of blood from him, but what happened to them after they left I have no idea.

They do offer a big discount if we can pay promptly - 50% off. Which is good. It just amazed me how much it was, for the little they did for him. I mean, $200 for a nurse to stick an IV in? Gimme a break!

You all need to move to Canada.

My mother had breast cancer. She had a biopsy and two surgeries, one a lumpectomy and a radical mastectomy. Then follow up chemotherapy for 9 months and that included a blood test every three weeks. And anti nausea medication that was $100 per treatment. Then two years of follow up care. Followed by diagnosis of metastatic cancer. Which needed fluid withdrawn and x rays every month. And another 9 months of chemo. That round included a bi weekly therapist session. And she was hospitalized three times, for several days each time. Then she had home care, a nurse and a home care worker each for an hour every day for four months. She also needed a hospital bed at home, and all of the equipment for home care. And a night nurse for several nights until she was moved to a hospice with 24 hour care. She was on about 26 different medications at that point, one prescription alone cost $600.00.

The total bill for her care over that period? Zero. Not a penny. And the health insurance does not cost a penny.

This is a humane country, there is enough to worry about with illness, adding financial burdens is just reprehensible.

Originally posted by Sammie5
You all need to move to Canada...This is a humane country, there is enough to worry about with illness, adding financial burdens is just reprehensible.

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Amen!!!

You'd think the USA would join the modern world on this one...

No I don't think you belittled it at all. It would have been a lot more had I stayed on the path they wanted me to stay in- extensive physical therapy, sleep studies more drugs additional MRI's instead, I opted out and went to accupuncture. I saw the man 3 times a week for 5 months at $30.00 a pop and have been headache and pain free since!

The sad part about your bill Heidi, is it might not be finished yet? Have you got the bill from the tech that read the x-rays, or the blood work that was performed? Then you factor in that someone had to read those results and they will charge you for that. It really is a greedy viscious cycle and the hospitals are the very worst to deal with if you don't make payments on time. Three days late off you go to a bill collector!

I hear ya. Our health care system IS really messed up. It is outrageous!

By the way... the little thing they put on his finger is a pulse oximeter. It reads his oxygen flow to tell them if he was getting enough oxygen.

You're right MA, I still have 2 more bills coming. One from the doctor and from the radiologist.

I figure it will be at least $200 for the person who took 5 minutes out of their day to read the test results, and another $200+ for the 10 minutes we saw the doctor. The blood work was included in the hospital bill, all $450 for that. That little pulse/oxigen deal cost $200. How many times over have they paid for that piece of equipment???

I know what you mean. I can't imagine what my Dad's bill is going to be when he gets sent home. The parents live on Social Secutiry and have no insurance. I have already contacted the billing department at the hospital to get us the form for financial assistance.

Mom and Dad are going to have to swallow the ole pride and get help with this bill with 2 weeks in the hospital, radiology, the IMCU unit, surgery, etc.,etc.,etc. there is no way that we can afford to cover this bill out of pocket. I just hope that when the bill comes in neither one of them have a heart attack when it is opened.

That bill is outrageous! My husband is in the military and all our health care is basically free. My older daughter is always sick with something and we are always going to the doctor with her, she is 19 and has 2 more years before she will be off the military benefits.

I don't have any !I hope to hell I don't get sick! ted has it through the army.