“While we cannot comment on rates for emergency room services..."
Why not?
Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
11–20 of 249 posts
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#12“While we cannot comment on rates for emergency room services..." Why not?
Because regardless of what they say it is going to make them look bad?
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#13There is an easy way to avoid this, don't go to the Emergency Room unless you have an Emergency.
I guess the point of the article is exhorbitant fees. An ice pack and a bandage in ER don’t have to cost $5k plus.
What is it that does cost $5k? Keeping a mostly-unused tomography machine and crew ready in case someone at the ER needs it? Insurance premiums charged per patient who walks in the door?
We get these complaints in Germany too (where I currently live) BTW. "A five-minute drive with an ambulance shouldn't cost €500!" someone complained to the newspaper here recently. It doesn't, what costs €500 is keeping enough ambulances ready that one can arrive within x minutes with y% probability, for IMO overcautious values of x and y.
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#14How can people read and hear about stories like this, and even possibly think it's OK or even normal? How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable? I have never directly paid a single cent for healthcare, and neither has anyone I know. When I had to get 6 stitches in my forehead at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, it cost me nothing. When my friend needed to get the tip of his finger reattached, it co…
We all know it's bad. We pay hundreds a month to insurance companies because it's a law that we have to, and our employers pay even more. The health care industry is massively profitable. There's simply nothing we can do about it, or many of the issues plaguing this country. Before anyone says so, the illusion that we can change it by voting is not helpful. We can all elect a representative who will say they are going to change it, and they don't have to do a damn thing we want them to. Our system of government is broken, not just our health care system.
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#15"Hoboken University Medical Center, where Pell was seen, declined to comment on the bill. The hospital did, according to Pell, reverse the entire balance after Vox began inquiring about the fees."
I'll bet the hospital sees that as 'fixing the situation' and all I am left wondering is how many other people don't have Vox reporters sending emails for the same type of treatment. I'm hoping the CMS plan [0] to require published prices might help this type of nonsense just a little.
[0] https://www.cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Press-rele...
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#16How can people read and hear about stories like this, and even possibly think it's OK or even normal? How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable? I have never directly paid a single cent for healthcare, and neither has anyone I know. When I had to get 6 stitches in my forehead at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, it cost me nothing. When my friend needed to get the tip of his finger reattached, it co…
I will bring up one point. The wages medical practitioners make are generally higher in the US. So the cost of medical care is higher.
I live in Belgium, mostly good and free healthcare (barring payment of a few euros here and there). I have 3 cousins who are (or are studying to become) doctors and while specialised doctors can make decent money (€75 -> 450k), they don't come anywhere close to what a US based doctor might be making.
Someone making between $1 to 2m in the US (e.g. certain surgeons) might "only" be making $300 - 400k here. And the quality level is exactly the same.
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#17How can people read and hear about stories like this, and even possibly think it's OK or even normal? How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable? I have never directly paid a single cent for healthcare, and neither has anyone I know. When I had to get 6 stitches in my forehead at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, it cost me nothing. When my friend needed to get the tip of his finger reattached, it co…
>How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable?
One side of government is intent on breaking government and then using that dysfunction as a justification to create more dysfunction. The American political environment relies entirely on fear and creating fear using misinformation.
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#18How can people read and hear about stories like this, and even possibly think it's OK or even normal? How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable? I have never directly paid a single cent for healthcare, and neither has anyone I know. When I had to get 6 stitches in my forehead at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, it cost me nothing. When my friend needed to get the tip of his finger reattached, it co…
I understand where you're coming from, I too live in a country where healthcare is free at the point of use, but your claim is ludicrous. If you've ever payed any taxes then you have payed for the services you've received.
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#19How can people read and hear about stories like this, and even possibly think it's OK or even normal? How do lawmakers in the USA convince people that this is acceptable? I have never directly paid a single cent for healthcare, and neither has anyone I know. When I had to get 6 stitches in my forehead at 2 AM on a Sunday morning, it cost me nothing. When my friend needed to get the tip of his finger reattached, it co…
We all know it's bad. We pay hundreds a month to insurance companies because it's a law that we have to, and our employers pay even more. The health care industry is massively profitable. There's simply nothing we can do about it, or many of the issues plaguing this country. Before anyone says so, the illusion that we can change it by voting is not helpful. We can all elect a representative who will say they are goin…
The individual mandate was repealed.
With the explicit goal of causing the individual marketplaces to implode. In the meantime it's increased the cost to taxpayers of subsidizing marketplace plans!
Re: Emergency room patients can face steep bills even when treatment is declined
#20Ok, mine is way less than her, but at one of the ER in Wisconsin, they sent me a bill of $400 for literally telling me that I have no disease and sending me back. Out of that, the insurance paid $300, and I paid 100 out of my pocket.
I had gone to ER only because it was at an odd time and no other hospital was open.