Even Physicians Are Shocked By Healthcare Costs
I took my son to the ER for a broken thumb. It was a minor injury but the thumb is the most important digit on the hand. The ER care was just fine…a quick look, an Xray and a small splint. We didn’t have to wait long and everyone was courteous.
Imagine my surprise to receive the bill from the hospital. Yes, I have insurance. My out of pocket expense was minimal but here is what the insurance company was charged:
- Hospital Misc.- $56.00 (could this be the splint?)
- Diagnostic Xray - $342.00
- Emergency Care- $952.00
- Surgery - $570.00
- Total $1920.00
Take a look…surgery? There was so surgery, no procedure. There was no break in the skin. The doctor component of the visit was about 7 minutes (mainly because I knew the doc and we chatted about politics)
This bill is unreal and is comprised of unreal health care costs. The insurance paid a component of the bill. They have a cap on what they will pay for each element.
I am an informed consumer so I will be calling the hospital billing office to discuss the unreal charges. I doubt that most patients would do that if they had insurance. It would be “somebody else’s problem”. We need to bring the patient back into the loop to control costs. We all pay in the end anyway.
The Doctor and Radiologist bill will be separate.
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
Good luck with trying to get those unreal charges adjusted. I was given a pregnancy test before an upper GI just to be 100% sure. $60!!!! That’s unreal. They would not adjust it. They told me about financial assistance, but I don’t qualify for that and even if I did, it still doesn’t justify that kind of price. I think I was especially miffed because this is one of those things that I actually knew what it cost OTC.