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...or even $100k: https://abc7news.com/rabies-shot-hospital-bill-vacaville-ca-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
For $700, I'll start my own IV.
Infusion medicine isn't given in the normal gravity-fed IV route, they're precisely controlled for flow rate and time. It's a whole other ball game.
$10000 looks like he got off easy given he visited an ER. Some unfortunate ones have to pay close to that amount just for the privilege of sitting in an ER, without getting any meaningful treatment.
$10000 looks like he got off easy given he visited an ER. Some unfortunate ones have to pay close to that amount just for the privilege of sitting in an ER, without getting any meaningful treatment.
I don't understand why this hasn't become a boil-over issue for Americans yet.
> Enhance transparency in healthcare pricing
So after you're in an emergency room, and a posted sign shows that to see any medical professional there, you'll be charged X plus a facilities fee Y. After you wait k hours to be seen, you're told that the treatment they think you need will cost Z. If you think that's too high, during an emergency do you try to go to a different hospital to see if they have the same treatment for W > Institute arbitration for billing disputes
I mean, better than no arbitration, but if you're dealing with a serious illness , trying to recover from an injury or whatever, while getting time from work, bouncing between specialists for follow-up visits, still foggy from pain meds, etc should you need to navigate an arbitration process? Are you equipped to?
> Advocate for consumer protections: Educate and empower patients to advocate for themselves through measures such as the right to appeal surprise bills and negotiate payment plans with providers.
... so again, placing the burden on patients to defend themselves during what already may be a very challenging time in their life.
I think the highest level bit is that the most predictable cost for health care would be under a free-at-point-of-care, single-payer system, that lets us cut all the medical billing and medical insurance overhead out. Everyone pays the same (nothing!) for their care, and every earner pays a predictable amount for the system overall. Even if the exact same "amount" of health care was provided, we'd collectively pay less for it. But if we also went all-in on value-based/outcome-based care rather than fee-for-service, we might also be able to get people to live healthier longer lives with less total care (and costs). And no one who's sick or recovering from a medical crisis needs to spend their energy "advocating" for themselves, or in dispute arbitration, or researching which provider has the best prices for their needed service.
There are some good points in here. However, it feels disingenuous with the author being a former surgeon general. "the onus of the entire amount still fell on me due to my high-deductible health plan (HDHP)." I mean, yeah, that's how HDHP works. Anyone in healthcare should understand that.
Yeah, and he does. But as he is arguing, the cost is exhorbitant, and if he had known what the cost would be, he would have chosen to do it himself at home. Even if you have an HDHP ( especially if you have an HDHP) this is how it should be.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe that's the way it works. And then you have to transfer to in network provider as soon as humanly possible (perhaps not as humanely possible...)
One of the problems here is that the patient can believe they're at an in-network provider — and be correct about that — and still get hit with "out of network" charges. One of the linked articles[1] explains it slightly better: > Surprise medical bills happen when a doctor or other provider who isn’t in a patient’s insurance network is unexpectedly involved in a patient’s care. Patients may go to a hospital that acc…
Turns out she was out of network, and the cost of the anesthesia on top of my in-network hospital bill was around $1050.
I have MS and receive an Ocrevus infusion every six months. It's a labyrinth of a process. UHC (insurer) sub-contracts(?) to CVS Caremark to provide specialty drugs. CVS insists on calling me to confirm they can ship it to my house. F no! I'm not running an IV for myself. Sort it out with the hospital. Last go around, the hospital coded the drug as coming from their supply instead of CVS so I got a surprise bill for…
Greetings from Australia. My brother has MS and gets a monthly infusion of Tysabri. All he does is show his Medicare card and it doesn't cost him anything.
Glad he's getting the treatment he needs!! Drugs have made incredible advances in the last decade.
What I find interesting is how in OP's original tweet, more than half of the comments blame him for the cost. Shouldn't have gone to that hospital! (it was the closest one). Should've drunken more water! etc. pp. Like the proverbial crabs in a bucket, only pulling each other down. https://x.com/JeromeAdamsMD/status/1761375417351430595