hospital bill....WOW

[magik]

It is kind of scary and ridiculous how much the stuff costs. A couple years ago I ended up in the emergency room, had bloodwork, a urine test, and an ultrasound to figure out what was wrong with me, less than an hour after the last test result was in and they knew what was wrong, I was in surgery, and as soon as I woke up and my temperature was stable, they sent me home. I was at the hospital for maybe...8 hours, not even a full day. I was in around 2 pm and they sent me home around 10 pm. The bills for that totaled over $25K, the bulk of that being the emergency room costs which I still don't understand what that was for because I got separate bills for the bloodwork, the urine test, the radiology, the surgeon, and the anesthesiologist! What could possibly be left that was worth $15K if the surgery itself only cost $6K??? Ok...so I occupied a room for a few hours, they gave me some IV fluids because I was dehydrated from vomiting from the pain, and they gave me some IV pain medication which didn't even work!

Fortunately I had insurance which covered most of that cost, but I seriously don't understand what cost so much for the hospital bill to be $15K if the actual services I received were not included in that cost.

 

[wdwfan16]

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.

I had that same surgery and spent 3 days in the hospital. My total bill was $25K and that included all Dr fees (I added it up later).

 

[cornfarmer]

Last week i received a bill for a 5 minute emergency room visit. I received 2 pills and a presrciption. Cost for that 5 minute visit was $480 or almost $100 per minute.

I called the hospital and spoke with the administrator. He openly shared approx 30% of all their patients never pay for their service..thus the rest of us with health insurance have to help pay for those who don't.

Folks...we don't need nationalized health care...we already have it! No one is turned away.

 

[Golf4food]

And people wonder why health insurance is expensive...

Insurance companies aren't the problem - they are heavily regulated by the states and cannot charge more than allowed by the state Department of Insurance.

If you want to lay blame for healthcare costs try the drug makers, lawyers, and the hospitals/doctors themselves. Insurance has their hands almost completely tied by the states.

 

[Crystal0608]

My appendix ruptured in Feb and my total is...$28291.55 with no insurance! I work f/t, insurance isn't offered. I now have 2 more surgeries I need, but seeing as now they are pre-existing I'm sol. I went in on Sat around 6am, released around 11am on Monday. In my whopping hospital bill, I'm charged for room & board, pharmacy, medical suplies, lab, radiology, operating room services, anesthesia, resp therapy, emergency room, & recovery room. Well, I also got separate bills for anesthesia, the ER doctor bill (this one was most ridiculous, he spent 5 minutes pressing on my stomach & ordered a CT scan $686!), my surgeon (who was awesome and after courtesy write off was cheaper than the ER dr), and one more company charging to read my CT scan....seems like some double charging to me.

 

[deerhart]

Medical bills drive more people to bankruptcy....

about 65-75% of all bankruptcies include medical bills OR lose of wages due to a medical emergency.

So even if you don't have medical bills because those were paid, people lose wages and thus can't pay their other debts.


Stop blaming lawyers for doctors and hospital rates. We don't set those rates, they do. The biggest culprit is they try to make up for people who don't pay. Other then that, your insurance company negotiates rates with the provider. The bigger and more powerful your insurance company, the lower actual cost your going to see and thus less deductible/co-pay your going to pay.

I get to look at TONS of medical bills and the difference between what is billed and what is paid is astounding. For example, I see lots of medical bills were the total billed was close to 20k but the actual paid amount was about 2k.

Medicaid/medicare actually pays a lot closer to the actual billed on hospitals and surgery then most insurance companies. They tend to pay a lot less for doc visits and for labs.

As for drug rates etc.. well the US subsidizes the rest of the world so our drug prices are ridiculous compared elsewhere.

As for no one being turned away, that is federal law that you cannot turn away someone from an emergency room because of their inability to pay.

 

[JDUCKY]

Last week i received a bill for a 5 minute emergency room visit. I received 2 pills and a presrciption. Cost for that 5 minute visit was $480 or almost $100 per minute.

I called the hospital and spoke with the administrator. He openly shared approx 30% of all their patients never pay for their service..thus the rest of us with health insurance have to help pay for those who don't.

Folks...we don't need nationalized health care...we already have it! No one is turned away.

And those that don't pay end up having medical collections all over the place and their credit ruined.

And 5 minutes in an ER??? Unless it's the smallest ER in the smallest town and you know the doctor personally, there's no way you were in and out of an ER in 5 minutes.

 

[fakereadhed]

Lots of costs have hidden expenses they are paying for. The $30 example for a couple of Motrin billed as "pain medication" includes the pharmacy staff dispensing and delivering it to the floor you're on. The OR fee usually has nursing staff fees rolled into the cost. It is expensive, but if they had people bringing their own meds in there could be huge mistakes made. For example, my DH calls anything for pain "aspirin". can you imagine the dangers of not having those people there to make sure less mistakes are made? It's an expensive but complicated system. Has great results most of the time, though.

 

[disney1990]

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

Thank your lucky stars that you have good health insurance coverage.

 

[Halle]

Last week i received a bill for a 5 minute emergency room visit. I received 2 pills and a presrciption. Cost for that 5 minute visit was $480 or almost $100 per minute.

I called the hospital and spoke with the administrator. He openly shared approx 30% of all their patients never pay for their service..thus the rest of us with health insurance have to help pay for those who don't.

Folks...we don't need nationalized health care...we already have it! No one is turned away.

No one is or has ever been turned away from an emergency room.
There is a lot more to billing than meets the eye. Hospitals charge amounts that they know the insurance companies won't pay, they are establishing a billing profile. Insurance companies determine what they will pay and if you are a participating provider you will only be paid what the insurance company alows regardless of what you bill. BTW Providers (physicians) cannot claim unpaid monies as a business loss on their tax return.

 

[disfan07]

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.

My electrophysiologist is also my regular cardiologist. Since she is the one who did the EP studies (2 different ones 4 months apart....2 different problems) i trusted her more than anyone else to stay with her. my appointments with her that are EP consults are like 3x as much as my regular cardio visits.

We go:
cardio: every week
pulmonologist: every 3 weeks
neurologist: once a month
dermatologist: once a month
allergist/immunologist: every 3 weeks
at $40 per copay it adds up

Believe me...the one thing that i am most thankful for is our health insurance (i dont think i could say im most thankful for my health...i dont think that would be accurate...lol)

and yes, the insurance companies are to blame. Why do you think anthem blue cross/blue shield of CA is being investigated for dropping people without telling them and for jacking up prices. Blue cross/blue shield is jacking up prices all over the country. They are to blame (we have anthem CA but luckily its group coverage through my dads work)

 

[dizneechic]

My electrophysiologist is also my regular cardiologist. Since she is the one who did the EP studies (2 different ones 4 months apart....2 different problems) i trusted her more than anyone else to stay with her. my appointments with her that are EP consults are like 3x as much as my regular cardio visits.

We go:
cardio: every week
pulmonologist: every 3 weeks
neurologist: once a month
dermatologist: once a month
allergist/immunologist: every 3 weeks
at $40 per copay it adds up

Believe me...the one thing that i am most thankful for is our health insurance (i dont think i could say im most thankful for my health...i dont think that would be accurate...lol)

and yes, the insurance companies are to blame. Why do you think anthem blue cross/blue shield of CA is being investigated for dropping people without telling them and for jacking up prices. Blue cross/blue shield is jacking up prices all over the country. They are to blame (we have anthem CA but luckily its group coverage through my dads work)

I hate to say this but I am glad I don't have to manage all of those appts... yikes! It's hard enough carving out the time for our monthly EP visit! So what issues were your EP studies for? My ds's were for ablating WPW, failed both times and damaged his AV node this last go round so now were looking at a pacer. We have one more study only in early May just to look and see if the AV node functions at all to determine what type of implant he'll have. Oh, and thanks for the tidbit on Anthem... the company my dh works for is out of CA and Anthem BC is our heath insurance. Thankfully like you were on a group plan but geesh!

 

[powelweb]

As for no one being turned away, that is federal law that you cannot turn away someone from an emergency room because of their inability to pay.

No one with an emergent issue can be turned away because of inability to pay, but don't think this means cosmetic surgery or a head cold would automatically get you treated in an ER- you may be referred to a less costly setting if you're not truly an emergency.

 

[Chelley00]

I just had a monster kidney stone. Because I'm on blood thinners, they had to wait a week to do the lithotripsy procedure to blast it. During that lovely waiting period I did 4 ER visits, one ambulance ride, 3 overnight stays in the hospital on pain pump, one CAT scan and 2 Xrays, one stent placement in the hospital, and then the outpatient lithotripsy. Grand total was

$129,499

Just to break it down a little, each ER visit was around $3,000, and if I was going to be admitted, they added a $700 observation fee. The ambulance ride was $500. The pump for the pain, not including the meds in it was $700 for 2 days. The radiologist was $600 each time, the ER doctor $650 each time.

It's crazy how much our insurance discounted everything. No wonder our health care system is out of whack. If people who don't have insurance have to pay those prices, you know there is no way they can pay those crazy amounts.

For fun, I asked the hospital for itemized bills, and they said it could take 10 weeks

 

[disney1990]

No one is or has ever been turned away from an emergency room.
There is a lot more to billing than meets the eye. Hospitals charge amounts that they know the insurance companies won't pay, they are establishing a billing profile. Insurance companies determine what they will pay and if you are a participating provider you will only be paid what the insurance company alows regardless of what you bill. BTW Providers (physicians) cannot claim unpaid monies as a business loss on their tax return.

You are right, the insurance company will only be paid the agreed upon cost. But, God help you if you don't have insurance. Your insurance company may only be paying a portion of the bill, but without insurance, you will be charged the entire charge.

 

[Cdn Gal]

Hearing these stories just makes me want to cry. I know that things are far from perfect here in the Great White North, but... we don't pay anything for Dr. or hospitalized visits. Yes, our wait times are longer, but not exceptionally long. I just don't know how you guys do it. To pay $1000 a month for coverage is criminal. We pay $30 a month for our 'insurance' which basically allows us to pay $1 per prescription for meds, dental coverage, chiropractic/massage up to $400 a year and $200 a year glasses/contacts. The funny thing is, is that we complain about this! (We want more coverage for glasses.) This $30 also covers us for a hospitalized visit in a semi-private room. I just don't know how middle class people can get ahead or even make ends meat if they are paying all of this $$$$ out to insurance companies! And, I haven't even gotten into the lower socio-economic demographics. My heart goes out to my friends in the South. I truly hope that the right change comes to your country (whatever that may be, in whichever form) so that everybody doesn't have to pay crazy amounts of money to insurance companies.

 

[momof2TNboys]

Okay, so I have to comment also. Let me ask a question. Why do we always complain about how much doctors make when we have no problem paying a lawyer by time for work? Do you know how much doctors pay to have an education. Most owe somewhere from 150,000 up to 300,000 in debt. Overhead is so high that many doctors are quitting because they cannot pay to stay in business. Yes, doctors do make a good salary, but I also sacrifice a significant portion of their lives going to undergraduate, medical school and then residency before they can even practice medicine. It really irritates me when we always blame the doctors. I will tell you something. If there were not so many people wanting to file lawsuits in this country, doctors could actually use their training and knowledge to make decisions instead of ordering unneeded tests to cover. It is out of hand. Malpractice is out the roof. Also, to those who want socialized medicine. I would look into it further if I were you. I know several people from Canada that hate the system there and bought private insurance to get care. If doctors get paid a standard salary, then there will be no incentive to see more patients and a lot less will go into the profession and alot will get out. So, that means a much longer wait time and no more getting into the doctor quickly for common complaints. An example, you can wait up to a year to get an MRI for a shoulder injury with socialized medicine.

 

[mickeysmate65]

Okay, so I have to comment also. Let me ask a question. Why do we always complain about how much doctors make when we have no problem paying a lawyer by time for work? Do you know how much doctors pay to have an education. Most owe somewhere from 150,000 up to 300,000 in debt. Overhead is so high that many doctors are quitting because they cannot pay to stay in business. Yes, doctors do make a good salary, but I also sacrifice a significant portion of their lives going to undergraduate, medical school and then residency before they can even practice medicine. It really irritates me when we always blame the doctors. I will tell you something. If there were not so many people wanting to file lawsuits in this country, doctors could actually use their training and knowledge to make decisions instead of ordering unneeded tests to cover. It is out of hand. Malpractice is out the roof. Also, to those who want socialized medicine. I would look into it further if I were you. I know several people from Canada that hate the system there and bought private insurance to get care. If doctors get paid a standard salary, then there will be no incentive to see more patients and a lot less will go into the profession and alot will get out. So, that means a much longer wait time and no more getting into the doctor quickly for common complaints. An example, you can wait up to a year to get an MRI for a shoulder injury with socialized medicine.

I couldn't agree with you more! The overhead for doctors and hospitals is ridiculous! If hospitals didn't charge so much then all of the support functions for patient care wouldn't be in place. There is so much that happens behind the scenes to ensure quality care. Think about this - every time a hospital is faced with an unfounded lawsuit it costs money to review the case, etc. Even when you pick up the phone to complain about the service (whether founded or an unrealistic expectation) there are many hours spent looking into it. Many hospitals have processes in place so that if there is something in the system that can be tweaked it will be found and corrected. Healthcare is COMPLICATED! Many doctors prescribe tests not to waste money but b/c if they don't and something is missed they are afraid they'll be sued.

 

[JDUCKY]

FWIW, lawsuits are less than 2% of medical costs.
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=4968&type=0


http://www.factcheck.org/president_uses_dubious_statistics_on_costs_of.html

And on Jan. 8, 2004 , the Congressional Budget Office also said the Kessler-McClellan study wasn’t a valid basis for projecting total costs of defensive medicine.

CBO: When CBO applied the methods used in the study of Medicare patients hospitalized for two types of heart disease to a broader set of ailments, it found no evidence that restrictions on tort liability reduce medical spending. Moreover, using a different set of data, CBO found no statistically significant difference in per capita health care spending between states with and without limits on malpractice torts.​

Tort reform has no effect:
http://www.insurance-reform.org/pr/AIRCaps then Rate Hikes.pdf

 

[stacie_d]

Okay, so I have to comment also. Let me ask a question. Why do we always complain about how much doctors make when we have no problem paying a lawyer by time for work? Do you know how much doctors pay to have an education. Most owe somewhere from 150,000 up to 300,000 in debt. Overhead is so high that many doctors are quitting because they cannot pay to stay in business. Yes, doctors do make a good salary, but I also sacrifice a significant portion of their lives going to undergraduate, medical school and then residency before they can even practice medicine. It really irritates me when we always blame the doctors. I will tell you something. If there were not so many people wanting to file lawsuits in this country, doctors could actually use their training and knowledge to make decisions instead of ordering unneeded tests to cover. It is out of hand. Malpractice is out the roof. Also, to those who want socialized medicine. I would look into it further if I were you. I know several people from Canada that hate the system there and bought private insurance to get care. If doctors get paid a standard salary, then there will be no incentive to see more patients and a lot less will go into the profession and alot will get out. So, that means a much longer wait time and no more getting into the doctor quickly for common complaints. An example, you can wait up to a year to get an MRI for a shoulder injury with socialized medicine.

Please don't blame lawyers as a category for the malpractice lawsuit problem. For every medical malpractice suit that is filed, there are usually more lawyers retained to defend the multiple health care providers that are involved than those bringing the action. We have to represent our docs, and, unlike those suing, we can only charge by our time. We don't get a cut at the end.

I represent docs, and I am married to one, who has over 200K in student loans due to a lack of insurance to help us cover his diabetes pump supplies,test strips, insulin and other supplies necessary to keep him alive trough medical school. Kinda ironic.