[cbmare]

It was just a little under $11,000! I was there about 6 hours.

Boy I'm glad we have insurance. I wanted to go to a lab for some of those tests and blood work but my dr. insisted I go to the ER because she was convinced that they were going to admit me for emergency surgery.

[Meg]

I was in the hospital for five hours for surgery on my shoulder last year.

$33,000.

For FIVE hours. And I was still throwing up when they booted me out!

[alinnell]

I used to work in a hospital billing office and your bill (sadly) isn't at all unusual. The health care industry, since the inception of HMO's, has become a joke. What most people do not understand is that your bill of $11,000 will net a payment of probably less than $1000 from the insurance company and possibly another couple of hundred from you in co-pays or deductibles. What is sad is that because of this, hospitals insist that those people without insurance pay 100% of the bill! It used to be that hospitals would not give discounts to individuals--only to the large insurance companies. This is changing, but ever so slowly. IMO, hospitals should go back to regular prices and not have to deal with the contractual obligation to write off 90% of the bill when dealing with an insurance company.

[EZMONEY]

Only in AMERICA! Hard to believe sometimes we are the "lucky" ones isn't it? Oh, I know we (as a people) are very selfish...but...we have a lot of people in our country trying with all they have to just survive...a hospital bill like that, that they would HAVE to pay, would destroy them.

[alinnell]

Originally Posted by EZMONEY

Only in AMERICA! Hard to believe sometimes we are the "lucky" ones isn't it? Oh, I know we (as a people) are very selfish...but...we have a lot of people in our country trying with all they have to just survive...a hospital bill like that, that they would HAVE to pay, would destroy them.

One of the reasons my job was so stressful!!!

When I first started out, I worked in an MRI facility. We saw people with deadly tumors. If we had an inkling that those without insurance or whose insurance wasn't going to pay much and they would be stuck with a bill, we'd write it off. It was courtesy, especially since many of these folks were already dealing with huge bills elsewhere due to the course of their illnesses.

Then we moved to California and I got introduced to the whole hospital billing thing. Wow. I had such a hard time looking at a patient, knowing full well that their bill would bankrupt them, and not be able to offer them much of anything to help them. "The bottom line." That's all the hospital was concerned about.

[Stepping Out]

Last year, I had a bone biopsy on my mangled right ankle. No repair, no attempt to realign bone, just a biopsy to rule out osteomyletis. They charged our insurance company $33,000; for a 2 1/2 hour day surgery! I praise God that we have insurance . The copays alone are bad enough..I don't know how anyone could go through a truly serious illness without losing everything

[walking2lose]

The $$$ aspect of all of this is sickening. My husband has type 1 diabetes and has kidney stones, so we've seen our share of ER. The bills are ridiculous. And the pharmaceutical industry is another topic that I probably shouldn't even get started on. Diabetic supplies ain't cheap, and we have insurance-- thank goodness!

Anyway, MARE -- ARE YOU OK?? You didn't say what you were admitted for? I hope you are doing ok!!!

[melekalikimaka]

I was in the OR a total of 40 minutes tops for my arthroscopic knee surgery and my bills topped out at $8K. That was before insurance of course, but sheesh! I believe every crazy tale about the exorbitant costs of medical care.

[brandnewme]

I work at the hospital here. Went in for a severe migraine that wouldn't subside. Based on my PCP's recommendation, of course. I had a closed head injury when I was in a car accident nearly 3 years ago, so my PCP wanted me to get in as soon as possible for a head CT just to make sure everything was okay.

Insurance denied my claim, because "you don't go to the ER for a headache" which is all well and good, except that it wasn't subsiding and my PCP instructed me to go.

Total cost for being there for a grand total of 2 hours? $3k without paying for the CT. The head CT and the MRI wound up being another $1600. All paid out of pocket. It's crazy.. it really is. Even those of us who have insurance often end up paying ourselves.

[NemesisClaws]

Try being on Medicaid/Medicare! Half the doctors in this town don't want to see you because these insurance doesn't want to pay half of the costs that the doctors want to charge, so oftentimes I'm stuck going to some clinic that has a rotating schedule of doctors fresh out of school. It's gotten to the point that I don't go to doctors at all unless I'm truly desperate.

[Mummy_Tummy]

I was pregnant with my daughter, who is now nearly 3, and visiting England to settle all my affairs before making the final move over. I don't even think I had my Visa or anything yet. Anyway, I had been very ill during the pregnancy and started having contractions and uncontrollable vomiting. I called my OB/Gyn back home and he said go to the hospital over here. They admitted me and I was in for 3 days but because I wasn't a British citizen I, of course, had to pay (well my fiancee-now husband anyway). The total bill for 3 days in hospital, about a million IV drips and medicine AND an ultrasound? Less than £200.00, which is about $400.00.

Something's horribly wrong.

[NemesisClaws]

Think I'll move to England in my old age....

[FrouFrou]

And here I was balking about a $3000, 5 hour ER visit with DD. And they didn't do anything! I think they charge by the hour, er, by the minute for room space, lol. Of course that was just for the er visit and not for the 2 docs that looked her over, the iv, and the x-rays they took. Those bills came later. It really is sad.

[sotypical]

I am so thankful that I live in Canada.

I was in Hawaii on vacation and had to have my appendix removed, the final bill was $20-30k I dont remember exact, but I do remember it was $800 a night to just stay in the hospital. It was cheaper to say in a 5 star resort with a better view!

[lilybelle]

mare, I hope you are doing OK now.

I was hospitalized for 6 weeks with pneumonia (almost 3 summers ago). Astounding bill of $750,000. This did not include the bill from my team of doctors, the numerous CT's, X-rays, MRI's, Respiratory Therapy, Physical Therapy and such. All total over a million dollars. Now when I get the least bit sick, I rush to the doctor and hope to ever avoid severe life-threatening illness again.

My son got a fish hook in his leg. I took him to the dr.s office and they cut the barb off and pulled the hook out (took 5 min's) . Charged my insurance $1500.00 for "MINOR SURGERY".

One of the things that really gets to me is that since I have a chronic illness, every single visit with my general practitioner is labeled as EXTENSIVE, just so my insurance can be billed at a higher rate.