hospital bill....WOW

[disfan07]

And my mom wonders where all our money goes to..lol

luckily we are still on 100% coverage for me until july because we just got the itemized bill from my week long hospital stay last month.....$80,000!!!!!

you know that cartoon thing where their eyes bug out of their head....yeah...i think mine did that

the combination of 8 different IV meds plus daily IVs (they had to redo one everyday) plus a central line adds up!!!

This is our 4th hospital bill since october. The first two were about $50,000 each (5 days each), the third was $65,000 (4 days...1 day ICU) and this one was $80,000 (7 days)....so about $240,000 in hospital bills alone in months

I just can't believe that out of that we have to pay nothing..... We are by no means financially unstable but $20,000/year for medical expenses including helath insurance, hospital bills, copays, meds, etc for one person could drain anyone!!

$22,000/year for college doesnt sound too bad to any of us anymore...lol

 

[rparmfamily]

Isn't it nuts? A friend of mine had a baby about 2 months after me, her baby was born with a heart condition that required immediate open heart surgery. (was not caught inutero) Unfortunately, the baby had to be lifeflighted (airplane) to San Diego from Hawaii, plus the surgery, the long stay there,etc. Her bills are over $1.5 million so far she said and still coming in. LUCKILY her DH is active duty, they've paid nothing.

Good news the baby is doing awesome, he's such a little miracle!

 

[Katie's Butterflies]

And my mom wonders where all our money goes to..lol

luckily we are still on 100% coverage for me until july because we just got the itemized bill from my week long hospital stay last month.....$80,000!!!!!

you know that cartoon thing where their eyes bug out of their head....yeah...i think mine did that

the combination of 8 different IV meds plus daily IVs (they had to redo one everyday) plus a central line adds up!!!

This is our 4th hospital bill since october. The first two were about $50,000 each (5 days each), the third was $65,000 (4 days...1 day ICU) and this one was $80,000 (7 days)....so about $240,000 in hospital bills alone in months

I just can't believe that out of that we have to pay nothing..... We are by no means financially unstable but $20,000/year for medical expenses including helath insurance, hospital bills, copays, meds, etc for one person could drain anyone!!

$22,000/year for college doesnt sound too bad to any of us anymore...lol

I hope you are feeling better now.

I agree, the prices are ridiculous. We have to pay about $20,000 just for insurance then 80% of any medical tests etc and $40 copays. At least it knocks the prices down a bit.

I can’t help but be worried about my friend’s without insurance.

Good news the baby is doing awesome, he's such a little miracle!

That’s great news about the baby. Some children are real fighters. I’m glad he’s doing ok!

 

[Lucky4me]

Really, the costs are so inflated. My husband's bill totaled 1.2 million for cancer and a stem cell transplant. We'd have heart attacks looking at the bills and it got to the point where we just tossed them in a drawer unopened.
What happens is the insurance companies settle with the hospital for a portion of the total bill, rarely does the full amount get paid. I think ours was half a million, which our insurance and the hospital covered. (He was in a trial) For those with no insurance and a low income, financial aide forms get filled out and the price again, magically drops.
I think the only people who really pay what is billed, are the very wealthy with no health insurance and I'm sure there are very few of those.
I don't get why they do it this way, but I'm glad we didn't lose our home or have to file bankruptcy.

 

[DeniseinNS]

that's insane!! Makes me glad that we don't pay for medical treatment here.

 

[dizneechic]

OUCH! Unfortunately we feel your pain as well. My 8 y/o has had 2 cardio ablations (failed attempts) since Oct, the 2nd one resulted in damage to his AV node, a week in ICU, and us now with his original issue, random degrees of AV Block and him now needing a pacemaker (coming soon). Not including the ambulance rides from when he would have issues at school (1,200 each) the medical bills since Oct have been upwards of 500k. Thankfully we have an annual OOP max of 6k but since we've covered the span of 2 years it's 12k we didn't really plan for expense wise that we had to fork over. Of course we still have the pacer surgery ahead of us and then need to plan in future years for the related expenses since we know we'll be hitting the OOP maxs annually now.

 

[PaulaSue]

WOW! that is depressing.

 

[okeydokey]

Thankfully the new health care bill does away with lifetime maximum benefits. When my Dad had cancer his lifetime limit was $1 million. Sounds like a lot but if you need certain treatments that are super expensive you can reach that limit in a hurry.

 

[disfan07]

yeah we had a $3 million limit per person on ours which originally, wasnt a problem because we just got onto this insurance July 2008 and I would be off of it in 3 years but now that I can stay on until i'm 26, we're very glad that there's no limit because I am supposed to be having a brain tumor biopsy soon in addition to all the "normal" hospitalizations from my asthma, my heart arrythmia and complications from immunosuppresent meds.

one of these days our eyes are just going to bug out and not come back in...lol

we always say that we are extremely lucky that we can afford our bills and that we have our health insurance because we are no where near the situations that a lot of people facing medical bills like this are. We are always grateful that when we get these bills all we are sayign is that unfortuantely we can't go out to eat as much, or unfortunately we have to scale back on vacation, etc. We are not wondering how were are going to pay the bills, or buy food, etc. It's a crazy thing to say when we are facing all these hospitalizations, and surgeries and treatments but when we get the bills, we just always say how LUCKY we are. You really do have a different outlook on life and a different idea of what it means to be lucky and grateful if you have gone through or are going through something liek this.

 

[disfan07]

OUCH! Unfortunately we feel your pain as well. My 8 y/o has had 2 cardio ablations (failed attempts) since Oct, the 2nd one resulted in damage to his AV node, a week in ICU, and us now with his original issue, random degrees of AV Block and him now needing a pacemaker (coming soon). Not including the ambulance rides from when he would have issues at school (1,200 each) the medical bills since Oct have been upwards of 500k. Thankfully we have an annual OOP max of 6k but since we've covered the span of 2 years it's 12k we didn't really plan for expense wise that we had to fork over. Of course we still have the pacer surgery ahead of us and then need to plan in future years for the related expenses since we know we'll be hitting the OOP maxs annually now

Our max is $8,000 per person but that doesn't include co pays, medication, nebuilzers, some testing, parking ($30 a week), therapy, etc. We think that since i got sick 5 years ago we have probably shelled out $100,000+ for medical expenses WITH health insurance just for me...and we have 3 other people in our family

 

[Juliet25]

IKWYM. I had a $10,000 bill from kidney stones a few weeks ago. Looking over the bill I could really see where money was wasted. Because I'm pregnant, they couldn't do an x-ray on me so they ordered a MRI of my abdomen...at a cost of $3,000. The dumb thing was, no one knew why such an expensive test was ordered when it showed absolutely NOTHING. The ultrasounds were cheaper and gave them more information.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

10 years ago, I had major surgery. I had a 3-day hospital stay. They gave me 2 painkillers every 4 hours (without my asking; they just brought them in). I vividly remember, they were Tylenol caplets, just like you'd buy in the store.

I asked for an itemized bill, and was floored when I saw a $30 charge for EACH Tylenol! $60 every 4 hours...for something I could buy in the store, probably at $5 for a 100-count bottle.

 

[tinkmom2]

And there are people that think our insurance system doesn't need an overhall? My oldest DD had two bladder surgeries. She was born with a cyst in her bladder. It took us nearly 2 years to pay off the hospital. We had 80/20 insurance. To pay for 100% coverage would be almost half my DH check. My youngest just had tubes put in her ears and adnoids removed last Wednesday. It was a day surgery so I am hoping for a smaller bill. We just got the doctor visit bill. Since he is a pediatric specialist his office visit was billed at almost $600.00 for one visit! Unbelievable

 

[dizneechic]

Since he is a pediatric specialist his office visit was billed at almost $600.00 for one visit! Unbelievable

To see my ds's electrophysiologist it's 1600 for a whole 20 minute (if that) appointment, that doesn't include the $142 ekg every time (we go monthly). I am SO thankful for our insurance, but I agree that the charges are freaking ridiculous.

 

[deerhart]

Thankfully we have an annual OOP max of 6k but since we've covered the span of 2 years it's 12k we didn't really plan for expense wise that we had to fork over. Of course we still have the pacer surgery ahead of us and then need to plan in future years for the related expenses since we know we'll be hitting the OOP maxs annually now.

If you can't itemize (or the 6k isn't 2.5% of your income, this is where FSA accounts really come in handy.

 

[Ava]

IKWYM. I had a $10,000 bill from kidney stones a few weeks ago. Looking over the bill I could really see where money was wasted. Because I'm pregnant, they couldn't do an x-ray on me so they ordered a MRI of my abdomen...at a cost of $3,000. The dumb thing was, no one knew why such an expensive test was ordered when it showed absolutely NOTHING. The ultrasounds were cheaper and gave them more information.

The amounts hospitals bill insurance (aka the amounts we see printed on our bills) are ridiculous. I remember looking over the itemized bill from my daughter's birth and seeing that they'd charged something like $30 for "pain medication" given to my partner - they gave her a couple of Motrin! I could've gone down the block to the drugstore and bought a year's worth of Motrin for $30. It's just ridiculous, the doctors/hospitals bill insurance the amount they know will get them the $ they really want, based on their agreement with the insurance company. So if their agreement says the insurance company will pay 50% of charges and the doctor wants to be paid $100 for xyz service, they'll bill your insurance $200 so they will get the $100 they actually want.

 

[daleswife]

I too am outraged by the hospital bills and agree we need something done, last march I had abdominal surgery for a cyst on my ovary and endometriosis and then in June had a complete hysterectomy. The first surgery was about 38K 3 days in the hospital and the second was about 45K for 5 days in the hospital. and that didnt include the Dr fees of 3500 or the anestesiologist (sp?) of 2800 each surgery.

 

[mkel34]

Did you get one of those $1000 toothbrushes with your stay? Google $1000 toothbrush for the cnn story. I believe I remember the medical biller saying the insurance companies don't even look at bills under $80,000, they just pay them.

 

[daleswife]

Did you get one of those $1000 toothbrushes with your stay? Google $1000 toothbrush for the cnn story. I believe I remember the medical biller saying the insurance companies don't even look at bills under $80,000, they just pay them.

HOLY COW!!! No I brought my own toothbrush....but I did get one of those little bottles of that nasty mouthwash......wonder how much that cost us!!!

 

[JDUCKY]

Really, the costs are so inflated. My husband's bill totaled 1.2 million for cancer and a stem cell transplant. We'd have heart attacks looking at the bills and it got to the point where we just tossed them in a drawer unopened.
What happens is the insurance companies settle with the hospital for a portion of the total bill, rarely does the full amount get paid. I think ours was half a million, which our insurance and the hospital covered. (He was in a trial) For those with no insurance and a low income, financial aide forms get filled out and the price again, magically drops.
I think the only people who really pay what is billed, are the very wealthy with no health insurance and I'm sure there are very few of those.
I don't get why they do it this way, but I'm glad we didn't lose our home or have to file bankruptcy.

Or those that make too much to qualify for aid yet can't afford to pay the bill in full and end up with monthly payments of hundreds of dollars a month for years (if they can even afford those)

Medical bills drive more people to bankruptcy....