off-ish the topic!
It is a lie that an ID or medical care are required for ER visits.
1. Isn't it lucky that NO ONE said that?
Insurance card in case I end up at the ER. Hospitals aren't supposed to be a pain about it, but they sure as heck are!
2. Have you ever been to the hospital or ER as an adult?
I know I work in the industry. So yes it is a lie.
Have you ever been to the hospital or an ER where you do NOT work? Random ER? For yourself or a loved one?
If you ever end up at one you're not connected to, your perspective very well might turnaround. As I said, they can be a pain, no matter what they are *supposed to do*. They will hassle you and nearly bully you (or what FEELS like bullying when you or a loved one is dealing with whatever brought you/them to the hospital in the first place) hour after hour until someone can get away to get your card and/or ID.
My stepmom has a really skewed version of reality like this, too, being a NICU charge nurse and only having dealt with her hospital as an adult. She thinks the red carpet is rolled out for everyone, just like it has been for her and my half-siblings, and she cannot handle the idea that it's a lot different for people who don't work there. She rejects it much like you are rejecting the experiences of others.
My MIL won't be seen even for an INR check without her ID; she always wants to leave it in the car (I have no idea why) and I never allow it (I'll carry her second purse, yes, second purse, for her) because IF they ask for it, she *has to* have it or she gets no service that day. Even though even the checkin people recognize her.
Oh and if a patient is admitted then there is no co-pay.
OMG where did you get THAT idea? I absolutely have a hospitalization copay (and "hospitalization" means you're admitted...a brief stop there is "I went to the ER", not "I was hospitalized"). It's not as much as MIL's Medicare hospitalization copay (Medicare's is somewhere nearly $1300), which thankfully is just once per year, and thankfully we got her on the swanky supplemental plan so she doesn't pay that since UHC covers it, but it's there.
The ambulance drivers even check my MIL's ID while she's on the floor having a stroke. It's...awesome... Even better when we beat them to the hospital, when we're coming from a town 12 miles down the highway and all they are doing is driving through her town. Makes us feel great. Oh and the multiple insurance card and ID checks while she's being very slowly assessed (she doesn't have the "clotbusting drug" type of strokes, so her ER care is very slow)...
On another thread someone just said it's too bad the call center CMs aren't given a 2 week, onsite stay, as part of their training...sometimes I think that everyone who works in the hospital "industry" should be given a fake set of symptoms and be sent to a hospital outside of where they work, to see what it can be like as an unknown person coming in their doors...