So my friends dad broke his leg the other night

[T-shirt Sip 2104]

9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

I had to go to the ER three weeks ago.  Ended up turning into an overnight stay, because they couldn't schedule my procedure till the next day.

Haven't gotten a bill yet.  I'm really looking forward to those.

Maybe it was on the house. 

[The Ace of Aces 5183]

1 hour ago, Bevo said:

I bet you wish the GP could have diagnosed the panic attack.

I hope she is now cooking fries at McDonalds. My blood pressure was high in her office for the first visit (I have horrific white coat syndrome) and she freaked out even with my pleading I’m fine, did an EKG and said if my heart didn’t go below 70 bpm I need to go the ER immediately cause I’m having a heart attack and might die. 

Fuck her  

 

[Armybrat 40847]

On 5/27/2021 at 8:48 PM, conVINCEd said:

Nephew spent the first 3 months of his life in the NICU.  $1.3M.  He’s doing great now.

My twin grandkids spent their first 3 months in the Seton NICU in 1992 - insurance Was billed $1,000,000. Twofer special promo.

[Armybrat 40847]

On 5/28/2021 at 12:25 AM, Updawg said:

Buying a house is easier than dealing with health insurance

When my daughter was born some random doctor billed saying they were in the room. Luckily I saw the the letter/bill and called bullshit. I was in there as well and knew who else was as well

Maybe that doc just peeked in the door.... or was driving by in the parking lot.

[conVINCEd 21469]

8 minutes ago, Armybrat said:

My twin grandkids spent their first 3 months in the Seton NICU in 1992 - insurance Was billed $1,000,000. Twofer special promo.

Inflation.  My nephew was just a few years ago.  Did they even have a NICU in the 1800’s?

[tbone_ 14123]

It didn’t cost $400k. It cost what the Medicare DRG is for that service. Let us know what Medicare paid and what your friend’s dad’s out of pocket was after the claim is adjudicated.

This is a good point. I will try to find that out.

[High Plains Drifter 11049]

 

My daughter broke her collarbone. We took her to the ER in my small town late at night. They had to call the doc from home to come in. He was in the room less than 5 minutes, ordered a x ray and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Insurance covered most of the hospital bill. Doctor's bill was in the thousands. Insurance covered only a small portion of it. Somewhere on his bill it said something like "fee for evaluation, diagnosis, and consultation."

We wrote a strongly worded letter that basically said we felt like what you got from our insurance was more than adequate compensation for the five minutes we saw you, and we won't be paying you another cent. Never heard anything again. Never showed up on our credit history.

 

[Deej 76793]

44 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

My daughter broke her collarbone. We took her to the ER in my small town late at night. They had to call the doc from home to come in. He was in the room less than 5 minutes, ordered a x ray and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Insurance covered most of the hospital bill. Doctor's bill was in the thousands. Insurance covered only a small portion of it. Somewhere on his bill it said something like "fee for evaluation, diagnosis, and consultation."

We wrote a strongly worded letter that basically said we felt like what you got from our insurance was more than adequate compensation for the five minutes we saw you, and we won't be paying you another cent. Never heard anything again. Never showed up on our credit history.

 

I went to Brackenridge ER for a shattered hand. Never once saw an actual doctor. Was told they didn't have one available. Got billed for one, though. Sent an email to my provider and they wiped that charge right off. 

[Wulaw Horn 19070]

My eldest daughter was like 6 months old and fell off her bed while we were on vacation. I told my wife- no- we don’t need to take her to the hospital. We waited 5 hours, saw the doc for less than 3 minutes, got a bill for $1500 and had to pay for all of it. Thankfully Ingot to tell her told you so... totally worth $1500. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Wulaw Horn

[Grade of D as in David 13253]

2 hours ago, Deej said:

I went to Brackenridge ER for a shattered hand. Never once saw an actual doctor. Was told they didn't have one available. Got billed for one, though. Sent an email to my provider and they wiped that charge right off. 

I'd have filed a counter charge for your time to dispute the fraudulent charge.

[markstanco 12577]

I had an employee get a sewing machine needle in her finger maybe 5 or 7 years ago. Took the needle off and went to the ER. We waited until around 8p on a Friday night (happened around 3). She said they took her back, got 2 shots, and they pulled it out with pliers. $1700. I paid $50 right then and a few weeks later insurance got it down to 500 which I think is more realistic.

[Bevo 13577]

10 hours ago, Wulaw Horn said:

My eldest daughter was like 6 months old and fell off her bed while we were on vacation. I told my wife- no- we don’t need to take her to the hospital. We waited 5 hours, saw the doc for less than 3 minutes, got a bill for $1500 and had to pay for all of it. Thankfully Ingot to tell her told you so... totally worth $1500. 

I agree with your thoughts but there is a counterpoint. I went to high school with a girl who went on to Vandy. She got drunk and fell down some stairs and went to the Vandy ER (which is a very good hospital). They told her she was drunk and sent her home. She woke up in the morning and was dizzy and couldn't stand. She went back to the hospital, had bleeding and swelling and died.

[Bevo 13577]

31 minutes ago, markstanco said:

I had an employee get a sewing machine needle in her finger maybe 5 or 7 years ago. Took the needle off and went to the ER. We waited until around 8p on a Friday night (happened around 3). She said they took her back, got 2 shots, and they pulled it out with pliers. $1700. I paid $50 right then and a few weeks later insurance got it down to 500 which I think is more realistic.

Personally, I think $500 is about right at a doctor's office and less if it was a NP. ERs are always more expensive, though. You should have an extra charge for a place that can see you at midnight on a Saturday. I don't know what that extra charge should be but without one, I can tell you that most doctors would want to be paid better if they were awakened in the middle of the night to drive 30 minutes each way to do some procedure. 

[TwiceHorn 31472]

13 hours ago, High Plains Drifter said:

 

My daughter broke her collarbone. We took her to the ER in my small town late at night. They had to call the doc from home to come in. He was in the room less than 5 minutes, ordered a x ray and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Insurance covered most of the hospital bill. Doctor's bill was in the thousands. Insurance covered only a small portion of it. Somewhere on his bill it said something like "fee for evaluation, diagnosis, and consultation."

We wrote a strongly worded letter that basically said we felt like what you got from our insurance was more than adequate compensation for the five minutes we saw you, and we won't be paying you another cent. Never heard anything again. Never showed up on our credit history.

 

I broke my collarbone a couple of years ago.  Drove myself to a doc in the box and got charged $250 to have it looked at and x-rayed.  They gave me a sling and told me I might want to see an ortho to make sure it wasn't going to be a problematic break, which I did, and it wasn't.  The worst part of it was that I got billed $75 for a sling, which wasn't the doc in the box, but rather their supplier.  I fussed and got it knocked down to 50 or so.

[MC Fresh Breath 4074]

On 5/27/2021 at 10:32 PM, Foosters said:

How much they charge just to amputate? 

Dad?  Is that you?

 

[Heme Doc 417]

I’ll fix any problem...

 

 

 

 

 

 

for about Tree Fiddy...

 

 

 

 

 

Hundred Thousand Dollars

[Bernard 879]

On 5/28/2021 at 9:36 AM, JohnLocke said:

A good simple reform would be to not allow hospitals to charge more than 25% more to anyone of their average insurance rate.

This x 1,000. If the government REALLY wanted to help those without insurance, they should require all healthcare providers to bill uninsured patients at the same rate as Medicare, or Medicaid, or whoever the biggest insurer is in the region. So fucking easy. With the stroke of a fucking pen, and ZERO cost to taxpayers, tens of millions of people could be helped. And any provider that doesn't like it can fuck right off.

The smoke and mirrors involved in our current healthcare reimbursement system is fucking disgusting.

Bernard

[CooterBrown 18012]

I went to Brackenridge ER for a shattered hand. Never once saw an actual doctor. Was told they didn't have one available. Got billed for one, though. Sent an email to my provider and they wiped that charge right off. 

When I was in the hospital for my stents, a random doctor working the floor one night stuck his head in my room to read my chart. He was in my room for about 2 minutes. Never saw him again.

I had to pay $700 on top of my copay because that doctor was out of network and billed me for that visit.

[markstanco 12577]

Personally, I think $500 is about right at a doctor's office and less if it was a NP. ERs are always more expensive, though. You should have an extra charge for a place that can see you at midnight on a Saturday. I don't know what that extra charge should be but without one, I can tell you that most doctors would want to be paid better if they were awakened in the middle of the night to drive 30 minutes each way to do some procedure. 

We got there during business hours and sat for 4+ hours, so we were hardly considered an emergency.

[Bevo 13577]

7 hours ago, markstanco said:

 

 

We got there during business hours and sat for 4+ hours, so we were hardly considered an emergency.
 

 

Just out of curiosity, call your GP and find out how much it would cost. I think the problem is that she went to the ER for something that could have been taken care of at an urgent care or a GP. Let me know what you found out. It could help others in the future.

[Bevo 13577]

10 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

When I was in the hospital for my stents, a random doctor working the floor one night stuck his head in my room to read my chart. He was in my room for about 2 minutes. Never saw him again.

I had to pay $700 on top of my copay because that doctor was out of network and billed me for that visit.

I think that kind of stuff is unethical. Why was the doctor reviewing your charts? What was his specialty?

[Captainant 27669]

45 minutes ago, Bevo said:

I think that kind of stuff is unethical. Why was the doctor reviewing your charts? What was his specialty?

[CooterBrown 18012]

I think that kind of stuff is unethical. Why was the doctor reviewing your charts? What was his specialty?

No idea. It’s been several years but maybe he was the cardiologist on shift that day and was making rounds on cardiac patients. It was fucked up he was out of network at an in network hospital.

[Bevo 13577]

2 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

No idea. It’s been several years but maybe he was the cardiologist on shift that day and was making rounds on cardiac patients. It was fucked up he was out of network at an in network hospital.

For sure. That stuff needs to stop. And it usually isn't the doctor. It is the insurance companies.

[XYZ 2154]

12 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

When I was in the hospital for my stents, a random doctor working the floor one night stuck his head in my room to read my chart. He was in my room for about 2 minutes. Never saw him again.

I had to pay $700 on top of my copay because that doctor was out of network and billed me for that visit.

Something similar happened to me years ago. I went to the ER because I had a laceration and didn’t know if it would need stitches or not. Anyway, the ER doctor says “Dr so-and-so is here today and he’s a specialist in lacerations, do you want me to call him?”. I was like OK, not understanding that I would have to pay extra for that. Dr so-and-so pops in, takes a look, snd he’s like “nah, you don’t need stitches for that” and leaves. Literally 1 minute. A few months later I get a bill for hundreds of dollars from that doctor. I call the business office to bitch them out. I tell the person “the doc was with me for one minute, I think $100 is fair”. The billing person didn’t seem to give a shit. I didn’t pay them anything. They may or may not have reported my “debt” to the credit bureaus, and they may or may not have sold my “debt”. I don’t give a shit.

[MissingInAction 25077]

Had to pay $400 to get a splinter removed from my buttock. 

[Bevo 13577]

53 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

Had to pay $400 to get a splinter removed from my buttock. 

Fucking in the woods can be dangerous. Or you took wood to a whole new level. Find out on the next episode of MIA.

[Bevo 13577]

1 hour ago, XYZ said:

Something similar happened to me years ago. I went to the ER because I had a laceration and didn’t know if it would need stitches or not. Anyway, the ER doctor says “Dr so-and-so is here today and he’s a specialist in lacerations, do you want me to call him?”. I was like OK, not understanding that I would have to pay extra for that. Dr so-and-so pops in, takes a look, snd he’s like “nah, you don’t need stitches for that” and leaves. Literally 1 minute. A few months later I get a bill for hundreds of dollars from that doctor. I call the business office to bitch them out. I tell the person “the doc was with me for one minute, I think $100 is fair”. The billing person didn’t seem to give a shit. I didn’t pay them anything. They may or may not have reported my “debt” to the credit bureaus, and they may or may not have sold my “debt”. I don’t give a shit.

My parents were watching my son and the dog of one of their friends bit him in the face. They took him to a plastic surgeon who trained under my dad and he put an ungodly number of stitches in a pretty small wound. No scar at all. It was impressive and free. Because of insurance doctors don't comp much anymore, though. But in the good old days, no matter the issue, anyone in our family could go to one of the top specialists in Houston and get seen immediately at no charge. It was a shock to me when I started working out in California and it took me months to get in to see a GP at Kaiser only to get referred and have to wait another few months to see a specialist.

[markstanco 12577]

3 hours ago, Bevo said:

Just out of curiosity, call your GP and find out how much it would cost. I think the problem is that she went to the ER for something that could have been taken care of at an urgent care or a GP. Let me know what you found out. It could help others in the future.

Local urgent care said go to the ER.

[Bevo 13577]

1 minute ago, markstanco said:

Local urgent care said go to the ER.

Can you describe it again? It sounds easy as fuck.

[markstanco 12577]

Sure.

 

[RollLeft 5045]

On 5/27/2021 at 8:42 PM, tbone_ said:

$400k.

For a broken leg.

Must have only been a semi-private room.

Edited June 2, 2021 by RollLeft

[mchookem 16336]

looks like everybody has a story 😡...i have a doozy...

last fall my neice was a freshman at college and it was rough the first few months. she got a referral to a psychiatrist (we thought she could probably use meds)...he worked out of an actual residential mental health facility. we told her to be honest with him about what was going on (anorexia and all that accompanies it)...she said a few 'hot button' things that caused them to decide she needed a 72 hour involuntary admission.

they wouldn't let her leave, she completely freaked out, which made it worse. so before admission they put her in an ambulance and took her across the highway to medical hospital for physical evaluation. 

she was a mess but the doctor that saw her there decided she was not an 'imminent threat' to herself and voided the order. she GTFO there as fast as she could. * (i credit that doctor with realizing that if she was absolutely hysterical over missing a test the next day, she probably wasn't actually suicidal lol)

a month later...she gets a $1500 bill for the ambulance! 😡

we've all said don't pay it. i advocated a combo 'fuck you'/'i'm a poor college student who came to you for help, shame on you!' letter (i'm really good at those lol)...but i think i like grandpa's idea, he'll call 'representing' her and tell them they'll get $100 or they'll get nothing and like it.

but i mean...really 😝 they forced her into the ambulance and hospital,  like, they had someone escorting her. she was only 18 at the time... and after that fiasco they have the nerve to bill her? fuck that.

 

 

* the good news is it definitely seems to have served as a wake-up call for her. ultimately i told her they were actually doing their job... when you walk into a mental health facility looking how she looked at the time and saying what she said... they are probably legally obligated to hold her? anyway...it def had an impact...she had gained 10 lbs by the time she came home for Thanksgiving and has kept it on,  and is basically crushing it now. i tell my sister we got the best case scenario-it scared her enough for her to finally actively work to address her issues! 🙂

 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

We have friends in Austin that had a child that was born with some sort of debilitating condition that would have resulted in a shorter life span rife with all sorts of problems. While in the hospital, the baby got some sort of infection and died.

The parents were left with a $250k bill. They consulted a lawyer that said “while it was most likely the case negligence at the hospital resulted in the infection/death, because of the baby’s condition there would be no quality of life therefore there was nothing they could do about it.”

So every penny they “save” goes to paying down a debt for their dead child.

God Bless America!

[Captainant 27669]

7 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

We have friends in Austin that had a child that was born with some sort of debilitating condition that would have resulted in a shorter life span rife with all sorts of problems. While in the hospital, the baby got some sort of infection and died.

The parents were left with a $250k bill. They consulted a lawyer that said “while it was most likely the case negligence at the hospital resulted in the infection/death, because of the baby’s condition there would be no quality of life therefore there was nothing they could do about it.”

So every penny they “save” goes to paying down a debt for their dead child.

God Bless America!

Well there's just no other way but for profit healthcare. If there's no opportunities to squeeze every last penny out of desperate families, then why would doctors even show up for work?

[Armybrat 40847]

On 5/30/2021 at 6:49 PM, High Plains Drifter said:

 

My daughter broke her collarbone. We took her to the ER in my small town late at night. They had to call the doc from home to come in. He was in the room less than 5 minutes, ordered a x ray and disappeared, never to be seen again.

Insurance covered most of the hospital bill. Doctor's bill was in the thousands. Insurance covered only a small portion of it. Somewhere on his bill it said something like "fee for evaluation, diagnosis, and consultation."

We wrote a strongly worded letter that basically said we felt like what you got from our insurance was more than adequate compensation for the five minutes we saw you, and we won't be paying you another cent. Never heard anything again. Never showed up on our credit history.

 

He was charging you for cockblocking his plans that night.

[Armybrat 40847]

On 5/31/2021 at 7:56 AM, markstanco said:

I had an employee get a sewing machine needle in her finger maybe 5 or 7 years ago. Took the needle off and went to the ER. We waited until around 8p on a Friday night (happened around 3). She said they took her back, got 2 shots, and they pulled it out with pliers. $1700. I paid $50 right then and a few weeks later insurance got it down to 500 which I think is more realistic.

You run a sweat shop?

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

42 minutes ago, Captainant said:

Well there's just no other way but for profit healthcare. If there's no opportunities to squeeze every last penny out of desperate families, then why would doctors even show up for work?

imagine cutting that check every month.

memo line = our dead baby

[Bevo 13577]

18 hours ago, mchookem said:

* the good news is it definitely seems to have served as a wake-up call for her. ultimately i told her they were actually doing their job... when you walk into a mental health facility looking how she looked at the time and saying what she said... they are probably legally obligated to hold her? anyway...it def had an impact...she had gained 10 lbs by the time she came home for Thanksgiving and has kept it on,  and is basically crushing it now. i tell my sister we got the best case scenario-it scared her enough for her to finally actively work to address her issues! 🙂

Exactly. Tell me the complete scenario that would happen if the psychiatrist let her go home and she killed herself. Does he keep his license? Does he get sued? Does the facility get sued? So, basically the psychiatrist could lose his livelihood. However, he definitely would miss weeks of work, deal with a crazy amount of stress, spend a lot of time doing paperwork, meet with attorneys, talk to HR and facility representatives, stand before a board of medical examiners, and have an unpleasant experience with his wife who would have her own stress from the situation.

So given the alternative for the psychiatrist, he did the right thing as long as his protocol led him to believe she was suicidal. And are you sure that she wasn't suicidal at that particular time?

Calling for an ambulance is probably standard procedure because they can't allow her to drive herself. It would be nice if they had a less expensive way to transport, though. The doctor may or may not have done the right thing. He isn't a psychiatrist and has limited experience in the field. And the billing is correct. Insurance should have paid for it, though.

[SurlyGator 865]

On 5/31/2021 at 8:21 PM, CooterBrown said:

When I was in the hospital for my stents, a random doctor working the floor one night stuck his head in my room to read my chart. He was in my room for about 2 minutes. Never saw him again.

I had to pay $700 on top of my copay because that doctor was out of network and billed me for that visit.

Anyone who follows MedTwitter humor is probably familiar with Dr. Glaucomflecken (@DGlaucomflecken), an ophthalmologist in Oregon who makes parody videos poking fun at the medical profession.  Not too long ago he had a cardiac arrest in his sleep.  Lucky bastard’s wife was awakened by the sounds of his agonal breathing, called 911 and was coached through CPR by the 911 operator.  Survived.  While in the ICU at an in-network hospital, he was treated by an intensivist that was not in-network.  Keep in mind, hospitality and intensivists are full time in-house, and he didn’t have a choice, he was not conscious.

Cigna sent him the bill for the out of network charges.  Being an ophthalmologist with plenty of free time, he spent hours fighting it and mocked Cigna mercilessly to his 300K+ Twitter followers.  Eventually it went away, but not because Cigna paid the doc, because Cigna strong-armed the hospital to get the intensivist to eat the charges.

There should be a law that hospitalists and intensivists on staff at in-network facilities are handled as in-network providers.

 

[markstanco 12577]

1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

You run a sweat shop?

In the warehouse in July and August....yes.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21907]

2 hours ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

We have friends in Austin that had a child that was born with some sort of debilitating condition that would have resulted in a shorter life span rife with all sorts of problems. While in the hospital, the baby got some sort of infection and died.

The parents were left with a $250k bill. They consulted a lawyer that said “while it was most likely the case negligence at the hospital resulted in the infection/death, because of the baby’s condition there would be no quality of life therefore there was nothing they could do about it.”

So every penny they “save” goes to paying down a debt for their dead child.

God Bless America!

I would think you could find an attorney that could at least get the bill mitigated.  If nothing else every month pay them with one of those giant checks like Ed McMahon used to give out and make an internet video that shows them paying the hospital for murdering their child.

[Huckleberry 32861]

2 hours ago, SurlyGator said:

Anyone who follows MedTwitter humor is probably familiar with Dr. Glaucomflecken (@DGlaucomflecken), an ophthalmologist in Oregon who makes parody videos poking fun at the medical profession.  Not too long ago he had a cardiac arrest in his sleep.  Lucky bastard’s wife was awakened by the sounds of his agonal breathing, called 911 and was coached through CPR by the 911 operator.  Survived.  While in the ICU at an in-network hospital, he was treated by an intensivist that was not in-network.  Keep in mind, hospitality and intensivists are full time in-house, and he didn’t have a choice, he was not conscious.

Cigna sent him the bill for the out of network charges.  Being an ophthalmologist with plenty of free time, he spent hours fighting it and mocked Cigna mercilessly to his 300K+ Twitter followers.  Eventually it went away, but not because Cigna paid the doc, because Cigna strong-armed the hospital to get the intensivist to eat the charges.

There should be a law that hospitalists and intensivists on staff at in-network facilities are handled as in-network providers.

 

I have left multiple medical bills unpaid in the roughly equivalent circumstance where I never agreed to the charges. $2500 ambulance bill for a 7 mile trip where the only thing they did was give my daughter smelling salts to wake her up. Neither I nor my wife were there, my daughter was unconscious, and nobody in our family or on the emergency contact list agreed to the ambulance ride (she has a condition where she frequently passes out and then recovers, which was in her file but the school personnel did not communicate well). Fuck you if you think I'm paying that. I honor and pay any debts to which I agreed but you can get bent if you think I'm going to pay some outlandish amount just because you say I owe you that much.

On that occasion I eventually sent an invoice to the ambulance company for accounts payable hours the dollar amount of which just so happened to be the difference between their inflated bullshit cost and the average area cost for the service they provided after I called three other local ambulance companies (they were essentially double so I was still willing to pay them over $1200 for a 7 mile taxi ride that never should have happened because the fact it did was the school staff's fault, not the ambulance company's). Called them and said once my invoice is paid theirs would be paid. As you can imagine, they didn't pay or lower their bill. 

A few months later I got the first call from collections and I just laughed and said "you're not getting a penny, bud, so I'd go ahead and save yourself some time and write that one off immediately." "Sir, we will have to report this to the credit bureaus and that..."

"I don't give a shit." click

Edited June 3, 2021 by Huckleberry

[XYZ 2154]

46 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

I have left multiple medical bills unpaid in the roughly equivalent circumstance where I never agreed to the charges. $2500 ambulance bill for a 7 mile trip where the only thing they did was give my daughter smelling salts to wake her up. Neither I nor my wife were there, my daughter was unconscious, and nobody in our family or on the emergency contact list agreed to the ambulance ride (she has a condition where she frequently passes out and then recovers, which was in her file but the school personnel did not communicate well). Fuck you if you think I'm paying that. I honor and pay any debts to which I agreed but you can get bent if you think I'm going to pay some outlandish amount just because you say I owe you that much.

On that occasion I eventually sent an invoice to the ambulance company for accounts payable hours the dollar amount of which just so happened to be the difference between their inflated bullshit cost and the average area cost for the service they provided after I called three other local ambulance companies (they were essentially double so I was still willing to pay them over $1200 for a 7 mile taxi ride that never should have happened because the fact it did was the school staff's fault, not the ambulance company's). Called them and said once my invoice is paid theirs would be paid. As you can imagine, they didn't pay or lower their bill. 

A few months later I got the first call from collections and I just laughed and said "you're not getting a penny, bud, so I'd go ahead and save yourself some time and write that one off immediately." "Sir, we will have to report this to the credit bureaus and that..."

"I don't give a shit." click

I did the same a couple times with bullshit medical bills. So ding my credit score, I don’t give a shit.

[mchookem 16336]

regarding reporting to credit bureaus...someone here who works the industry can probably verify ( @UTPhil2006?), but my sister works in mortgage lending for a small bank, and she says if a medical bill is the only bad thing on a credit report they pretty much ignore it. 

also, after watching HBO's Crime of the Century...our for-profit healthcare system is the reason for the opiod crisis. 

Edited June 3, 2021 by mchookem

[BottleRocket 646]

I broke both bones in my right leg playing soccer in high school. Ambulance ride and a week in the hospital. 100% of the bills were covered by $5 school provided sports insurance. Same thing with a broken arm from playing volleyball at a church function. $5 same as it is in town 100% paid in full.

[tbone_ 14123]

We have friends in Austin that had a child that was born with some sort of debilitating condition that would have resulted in a shorter life span rife with all sorts of problems. While in the hospital, the baby got some sort of infection and died.
The parents were left with a $250k bill. They consulted a lawyer that said “while it was most likely the case negligence at the hospital resulted in the infection/death, because of the baby’s condition there would be no quality of life therefore there was nothing they could do about it.”
So every penny they “save” goes to paying down a debt for their dead child.
God Bless America!

JFC.

[AeroHorn 749]

On 5/28/2021 at 10:40 AM, Captainant said:

Even adjusted for inflation (about $1400 in 2021 dollars), I can't imagine anyone leaving a hospital birth for under five grand. Even with insurance.

1997. I was a poor grad student (at UT) with research assistantship (20hr/week + insurance). Didn't sign up my newly wed wife for insurance and she got pregnant. Got to add her during yearly signup 3 months before due date. All the visits including child birth and post checkups over 5 months or so cost me a grand total of 0 dollars. Not a typo. The fortunate thing is that only one of the many insurance plans that UT offered didn't have a pre-existing condition clause, which I thankfully signed up for. That was Prudential.

Now, all work plans cost $500+ in monthly premiums and take $30-50 just for walking into a medical place.

[Gucci_Suit 2644]

On 5/27/2021 at 7:33 PM, smoky said:

How much should it have cost?

Yes. I’m interested in the answers to this question. How much (specifically) should it cost? And why?

Edited June 4, 2021 by Gucci_Suit

[956 Worldwide 34715]

My favorite doctor billing story is when I had to get a physical for an employer. I went a clinic for a physical, a couple of tests weren’t ready that day, I left the paperwork for the doc to finish filling out. On my way out I paid for the visit, the receptionist said “can you come back at 3 on Friday (or whenever) to get your papers?”.  Sure. Come back at the appointed time, grab a sealed envelope from the receptionist, leave. 

Three months later I get a 500 dollar bill from the clinic. No explanation on the bill. I called the clinic to ask what it is for and they tell me it’s for my “appointment” on the day the receptionist handed me the physical results at the counter and I walked back out. Of course I kicked up a fuss and simply told them I wasn’t paying shit for that, after several refused offers to negotiated a different price someone waived it. But not without telling me that since my name was in the system, that meant I occupied a time slot that cost 500 bucks and I was being unreasonable. 

My point here is that there are lots of absolute crooks in that industry and it’s especially heinous since, you know, it’s peop,e’s lives and health you’re using as a hook to grift.