Surprise Emergency Room Bill (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

Happened again, at least this time they saw a nurse

and once again, refuse to budge until the press gets involved
==============
A Missouri man says his family received an emergency room bill for more than $1,000 — even though a doctor never even saw his son.

Dhaval Bhatt says his wife and toddler waited to see a doctor at the hospital for over an hour. They eventually left without being seen.

"I had heard stories from my friends that unless literally like you're dying or in a very serious condition, only then you should visit an ER," Bhatt said.

Bhatt, an immigrant from India, always avoided hospitals in the U.S. because he feared large medical bills. But when his 2-year-old son burned his hand on the stove in April, Bhatt's wife, Mansi, called their pediatrician, who told them to go to the hospital.

"I was very much worried," she said. "The blisters came on his hand. So at that time, I really panicked."

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital coded the burn as a level 3 — a moderately severe problem. Mansi said a nurse took her son's vitals, looked at his wound, and said a surgeon would look at it more closely. But after waiting more than an hour, they decided to leave without seeing a doctor.......

Bhatt also filed a complaint with his insurance company and the Missouri Department of Health, with no luck.

The hospital did eventually waive the facility fee in November after a Kaiser Health news reporter got involved. Bhatt's bill was then lowered to $38 — the cost for seeing the nurse...........

MSN

 

[GeauxWhoDats]

Happened again, at least this time they saw a nurse

and once again, refuse to budge until the press gets involved
==============
A Missouri man says his family received an emergency room bill for more than $1,000 — even though a doctor never even saw his son.

Dhaval Bhatt says his wife and toddler waited to see a doctor at the hospital for over an hour. They eventually left without being seen.

"I had heard stories from my friends that unless literally like you're dying or in a very serious condition, only then you should visit an ER," Bhatt said.

Bhatt, an immigrant from India, always avoided hospitals in the U.S. because he feared large medical bills. But when his 2-year-old son burned his hand on the stove in April, Bhatt's wife, Mansi, called their pediatrician, who told them to go to the hospital.

"I was very much worried," she said. "The blisters came on his hand. So at that time, I really panicked."

SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital coded the burn as a level 3 — a moderately severe problem. Mansi said a nurse took her son's vitals, looked at his wound, and said a surgeon would look at it more closely. But after waiting more than an hour, they decided to leave without seeing a doctor.......

Bhatt also filed a complaint with his insurance company and the Missouri Department of Health, with no luck.

The hospital did eventually waive the facility fee in November after a Kaiser Health news reporter got involved. Bhatt's bill was then lowered to $38 — the cost for seeing the nurse...........

MSN

$38 to see a skilled and highly trained professional but $962 for the privilege to provide your personal information to an hourly employee and wait in an uncomfortable chair.

 

[Crzycjunx76]

You would almost think the for profit medical industry was TRYING to get legislated out of existance.

 

[zeetes]

seven years (some as old as ten) later, i am still paying off a ton of medical debt, and all of that was legit.

fork i feel bad for those being charged just for going through a door.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Guess this can go here
===============
After Lisa French’s doctors warned that she could be paralyzed if she tripped or fell on her back, the hospital told the Colorado resident that she’d have to pay an estimated $1,337 out of pocket for two procedures. Money was tight, which is why French and her husband used all the money in their emergency fund — $1,000 — to help cover most of the cost expected after insurance for the back surgeries, according to her attorney.

So when she got the bill from St. Anthony North Health Campus in 2014, French thought it was a mistake: The hospital had billed her for $303,709 — and she owed more than $229,000 out of pocket. As part of the forms she filled out at the nonprofit hospital in Westminster, Colo., operated by Centura Health, French unknowingly had signed up to pay all charges related to the hospital’s then-secretive “chargemaster” price rates — a master list of prices that determined the sticker prices for everything the hospital did.

Years after French argued she was never informed of the chargemaster and engaged in a years-long legal battle with the hospital, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in her favor this week, saying she is not liable to pay the rest of the massive bill because she did not agree to the hospital’s secret pricing schema. State Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel wrote in a Monday opinion that Centura Health’s argument that French was required to pay “all charges of the hospital” was rejected because the “long-settled principles of contract law” showed that the 60-year-old woman never agreed to pay the chargemaster rate...........

When she went to the hospital, French was quoted the $1,337 out-of-pocket price before the surgery — a figure based on her health insurance provider being in-network with the hospital. But when a hospital employee mistakenly gave French the estimate after misreading her insurance card, Centura Health did not notify French of the change, according to a lawsuit.

As an office clerk at a trucking company, French’s insurance plan was connected to ELAP Services, a firm based in Wayne, Pa., that audits hospital bills to assess the value of the medical services provided, Lavender said. After her surgeries were completed, ELAP advised French’s employer-based insurer to not pay her hospital bill of roughly $229,000, alleging she had been grossly overbilled. ELAP and the insurer agreed to pay about $74,000.

Centura Health disagreed with ELAP and sued French for the rest of the bill in 2017...........

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/19/colorado-hospital-surgery-cost-french/

 

[DaveXA]

Guess this can go here
===============
After Lisa French’s doctors warned that she could be paralyzed if she tripped or fell on her back, the hospital told the Colorado resident that she’d have to pay an estimated $1,337 out of pocket for two procedures. Money was tight, which is why French and her husband used all the money in their emergency fund — $1,000 — to help cover most of the cost expected after insurance for the back surgeries, according to her attorney.

So when she got the bill from St. Anthony North Health Campus in 2014, French thought it was a mistake: The hospital had billed her for $303,709 — and she owed more than $229,000 out of pocket. As part of the forms she filled out at the nonprofit hospital in Westminster, Colo., operated by Centura Health, French unknowingly had signed up to pay all charges related to the hospital’s then-secretive “chargemaster” price rates — a master list of prices that determined the sticker prices for everything the hospital did.

Years after French argued she was never informed of the chargemaster and engaged in a years-long legal battle with the hospital, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in her favor this week, saying she is not liable to pay the rest of the massive bill because she did not agree to the hospital’s secret pricing schema. State Supreme Court Justice Richard Gabriel wrote in a Monday opinion that Centura Health’s argument that French was required to pay “all charges of the hospital” was rejected because the “long-settled principles of contract law” showed that the 60-year-old woman never agreed to pay the chargemaster rate...........

When she went to the hospital, French was quoted the $1,337 out-of-pocket price before the surgery — a figure based on her health insurance provider being in-network with the hospital. But when a hospital employee mistakenly gave French the estimate after misreading her insurance card, Centura Health did not notify French of the change, according to a lawsuit.

As an office clerk at a trucking company, French’s insurance plan was connected to ELAP Services, a firm based in Wayne, Pa., that audits hospital bills to assess the value of the medical services provided, Lavender said. After her surgeries were completed, ELAP advised French’s employer-based insurer to not pay her hospital bill of roughly $229,000, alleging she had been grossly overbilled. ELAP and the insurer agreed to pay about $74,000.

Centura Health disagreed with ELAP and sued French for the rest of the bill in 2017...........

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/19/colorado-hospital-surgery-cost-french/

People shouldn't have to deal with all of this BS in the medical industry. Single payer should be normal here, but we can't have nice things, meh.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

This is a fun one (caveat: I did not verify)

 

[Poppy]

Our healthcare system is a joke, and anyone who thinks MFA won't be a drastic upgrade from what we have now is lying to themselves.

I have a story that's not quite as extreme as the one above, but not far off.

A few years back, around 3AM, my wife began having an allergic reaction to something. Her face began to swell and turned red and splotchy. I gave her a couple of benadryl to help with the symptoms and we kept an eye out.

However, a few minutes later, her tongue began to swell and her throat started to tighten. In case this was the beginnings of anaphylaxis, I took her to the emergency room.

We explained the symptoms and because it was so early, we got a room fairly quickly. However, we basically sat in that room alone for another hour waiting on a doctor. Thankfully, by that time, the benadryl seemed to have had some effect, and her symptoms were starting to subside.

When the doctor finally came in, he looked her over and said "Yep, it does look like she had an allergic reaction. The benadryl was a good idea." We were sent home with no treatment or prescription (as her symptoms were improving), no recommendations as to what could have caused the reaction, and a total time with the doctor of less than 5 minutes.

We received a bill a few weeks later for nearly $900. With insurance.

ER co payments are ridiculously high no doubt. But show me a govt program that is fiscally responsible and maybe I could get on board with this healthcare for all thing. There is no doubt that healthcare would be rationed out and we could no longer have the "my body, my choice" take on healthcare. Unfortunately, the ER is not a place to get the answers you were looking for. Proper follow up is what was needed. If she was not in distress, and improving and had taken Benadryl, I'm not sure much more needed to be done. If you don't know what caused the reaction, there is absolutely no way for the physician to figure it out in an ER setting.

And if you think the poor are not receiving good medical treatment, you are mistaken. The amount of people on medicaid right now is insane. We need interpreters onsite at all times because a lot of these people don't speak English at all. Like none. They walk out with no bill at all. Colonoscopy screenings, surgery, etc. To me, "its amazing that people who think we can't afford to pay for hospitals, doctors, and medications, somehow think we can afford to pay for doctors, hospital, medications and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

 

[dtc]

ER co payments are ridiculously high no doubt. But show me a govt program that is fiscally responsible and maybe I could get on board with this healthcare for all thing. There is no doubt that healthcare would be rationed out and we could no longer have the "my body, my choice" take on healthcare. Unfortunately, the ER is not a place to get the answers you were looking for. Proper follow up is what was needed. If she was not in distress, and improving and had taken Benadryl, I'm not sure much more needed to be done. If you don't know what caused the reaction, there is absolutely no way for the physician to figure it out in an ER setting.

And if you think the poor are not receiving good medical treatment, you are mistaken. The amount of people on medicaid right now is insane. We need interpreters onsite at all times because a lot of these people don't speak English at all. Like none. They walk out with no bill at all. Colonoscopy screenings, surgery, etc. To me, "its amazing that people who think we can't afford to pay for hospitals, doctors, and medications, somehow think we can afford to pay for doctors, hospital, medications and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

Nobody gets care anymore that's worth a damn. everything is wait for this and referral for that. If you don't know your specialist it takes months to get in and every step of the way is a copay or out of network.

The premise that we have choice is absurd. The only choice you have is to pay through the nose for crap insurance and then be bounced around from doctor to doctor to facility to facility having redundant tests and being sent from place to place hoping someone will spend more than 2 minutes to collect their fee.

And don't get me started on ER bills. The whole thing is nothing more than a giant corrupt duopoly with insurance companies and hospitals fighting over who gets the first spot in a giant gang bang of patients.

There is no government system less efficient than what passes as American healthcare. Freaking 3rd world countries have better healthcare than we do.

 

[DaveXA]

Nobody gets care anymore that's worth a damn. everything is wait for this and referral for that. If you don't know your specialist it takes months to get in and every step of the way is a copay or out of network.

The premise that we have choice is absurd. The only choice you have is to pay through the nose for crap insurance and then be bounced around from doctor to doctor to facility to facility having redundant tests and being sent from place to place hoping someone will spend more than 2 minutes to collect their fee.

And don't get me started on ER bills. The whole thing is nothing more than a giant corrupt duopoly with insurance companies and hospitals fighting over who gets the first spot in a giant gang bang of patients.

There is no government system less efficient than what passes as American healthcare. Freaking 3rd world countries have better healthcare than we do.

Agree 100%. The health care gravy train for $$$ has to stop.

 

[bclemms]

We arent choosing between government run and private healthcare. We have some intertwined sheet sphere of lobbyists, big pharma, politicians, insurance companies and government controlled medicine.

No matter what we choose, private or government it will be a sheet show because of the toxic combination listed above. Like gun control, we have a systemic failure of government driven by a systemic failure of voters driven by
partisan hacks and propaganda.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

ER co payments are ridiculously high no doubt. But show me a govt program that is fiscally responsible and maybe I could get on board with this healthcare for all thing. There is no doubt that healthcare would be rationed out and we could no longer have the "my body, my choice" take on healthcare. Unfortunately, the ER is not a place to get the answers you were looking for. Proper follow up is what was needed. If she was not in distress, and improving and had taken Benadryl, I'm not sure much more needed to be done. If you don't know what caused the reaction, there is absolutely no way for the physician to figure it out in an ER setting.

And if you think the poor are not receiving good medical treatment, you are mistaken. The amount of people on medicaid right now is insane. We need interpreters onsite at all times because a lot of these people don't speak English at all. Like none. They walk out with no bill at all. Colonoscopy screenings, surgery, etc. To me, "its amazing that people who think we can't afford to pay for hospitals, doctors, and medications, somehow think we can afford to pay for doctors, hospital, medications and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

‘Because one system is potentially inefficient, I’ll choose the one that’s proven to be inefficient and morally bankrupt’

Not sure how else to summarize your post

 

[Tapxe]

If the meme fits...

 

[jboss]

Like so many issues we're all forced to talk about in perpetuity, we all know what needs to be done but deep down we also know that not a single thing is gonna be done about it. Not for the foreseeable future at least.

 

[BullSheetBuddha]

...........................................................

There is no government system less efficient than what passes as American healthcare. Freaking 3rd world countries have better healthcare than we do.

I'm not so sure about that. I have medicare and Tricare For Life and I'm always amazed at how little I pay if I pay anything at all. And that's for doctor visits, emergency room, and hospital stays.