A mother left a Missouri ER before her son saw a doctor for his burned hand. billed $1,012

[Demovictory9]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-mother-left-a-missouri-er-before-her-son-saw-a-doctor-for-his-burned-hand-her-family-was-billed-1-012/ar-AATeBxc

A mother left a Missouri ER before her son saw a doctor for his burned hand. Her family was billed $1,012.

Bhatt took her son, Martand, to the ER at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis. After checking in, seeing a nurse who took her son’s vitals and then waiting an hour-and-a-half for a surgeon, Bhatt left with her rambunctious toddler before seeing a doctor or receiving any tangible medical treatment.

Within days, Martand’s burns healed, and the Bhatts thought that was the end of it.

Then came the hospital bill — $1,012.

Bhatt’s husband, Dhaval, 37, was shocked. He spent the next seven months fighting the charges and struggling to figure out what they were for.

The Bhatt family’s experience reveals a practice many Americans don’t know about: Some hospitals start charging emergency room patients almost as soon as they walk in the door, whether they see a doctor or get treatment. Sometimes they even charge a “facility fee” for telehealth appointments during which patients are home and never set foot in a medical facility.

[uponit7771]

1. K&R,

[Emile]

2. Healthcare for profit without the healthcare.

Capitalism

[lostnfound]

3. O Beautiful for Specious Lies ... an economic structure that actively prevents kindness

Been thinking about the way American doctors are forced to jump through hoops to justify treatments and tests. Because the stock market needs corporate profits to keep growing.

A family member is suffering horribly because of deferred procedures (three weeks, three weeks, three weeks…waiting for insurance approval…yadda yadda yadda) creating a huge problem out of a small problem.

Another family member is repeatedly denied a prescribed, beneficial med, huge ordeal with insurance year after year, and constantly changing policies.

Another family member with an eye condition was told that insurance mandated the use of inferior cheaper medicine in their monthly eyeshots (instead of more expensive medicine in the monthly eyeshots) “unless they fail to work” but if they fail to work, there’s a good chance she could go blind with just one such “failure”.

I have a doctor who basically told a student doctor next to him ‘don’t waste too much time’ listening to a patient.

There’s more but these are all current or recent events. And I don’t have a big family.

[moonscape]

12. With the eye injection, was this by any chance

using Avastin vs Lucentis? If so, I tend to understand this one.

[lostnfound]

14. I think so

[moonscape]

15. Avastin really is as effective at miniscule

comparative cost. I have macular degeneration and have known many many via a large mailing list who use it and have not heard a single case of issue with it. There are only a few options and with each, one might be a little more effective than another so one switches. I’ve known some who had better luck with Avastin, though for the vast majority it and Lucentis were of equal efficacy.

[DFW]

4. Imagine how much it would have been if the kid had been treated

Probably ten times that.

[jimfields33]

6. He was seen. Although 200 is probably more appropriate

His vitals were taken.

[Torchlight]

8. Left prior to any tangible medical treatment

Seems weird to charge someone over a thousand for a lack of any tangible medical treatment. I'm not sure a lot of people think taking vitals for $200 is appropriate.

[jimfields33]

9. Point taken. I do think a charge should be required. Maybe 50 bucks.

They did have basic work done and they need paid.

[DFW]

13. How very comprehensive

I seldom hear happy stories about confronting the cost of medical care in the USA, although one guy in our Dallas office just discovered that his 6 year old grandson had developed leukemia. His insurance plus some minor supplemental thing he had will end up covering something like 99% of the cost of treatment. The treatment is expected to take two to three years, so that would have to run into the hundreds of thousands if he had to pay out of pocket, which would ruin him completely. He'd have to keep working until age 121 just to pay that off.

[Voltaire2]

5. Boy it sure is a good thing we don't have

a universal comprehensive government health insurance program that operated under the objective of providing excellent healthcare at reasonable costs for everyone.

[Claire Oh Nette]

7. Call the business office

Set up payment. As long as you pay $5 a month, they can not report you to the credit people.

Often, hospitals will negotiate with you--that's full rack rate, but they will settle for about 1/3.

My husband and I got insurance through the ACA in 2016-2017. Everything was fine. WHen my husband qualified for Medicare, our entire household income was applied to me. TFG was in office, and coverage even under the ACA was high, with crappy coverage. I went a year without.

The week before I was to begin my new job that fall, I suffered my second heart attack while out playing golf, somewhere around the 2nd hole. Scared the crap out of the retired ladies of Crooked Creek I play with. I'm 50, they're all in their 70s+.

One MI, erratic runs of "life threatening v-tach," a heart cath, an ICD/pacemaker, and an ablation later, I had over $175,000 worth of medical bills, from a dozen separate medical billing groups. Outside the ambulance ($1200 for a

[Demovictory9]

10. Father got charges dropped to 39

[Jedi Guy]

11. Not really all that shocking.

I've heard that just registering in triage will run you at least $250 in most hospitals. Their business model is just wacky, charging $100 per pill for regular old generic acetaminophen. I seem to recall reading that that's what they bill the insurance companies, with the expectation that it'll be negotiated to a lesser amount. If one doesn't have insurance, of course, then the hospital just presents the full bill and it's on the patient to negotiate reducing the bill to something approaching a reasonable amount.