One emergency room visit. One EKG. One IV med for pain. Blood panels, CAT scan, yadda, yadda, so-on and so-forth. 8145 and change is what it would have cost Joe and I for his visit to the ER last month. The kicker? Not getting diagnosed with anything.
However, upon returning to work two days later... two co-workers (one happened to be Joe's regular doctor) made a visual diagnosis. Then was told to go home, and not return to work for 7 days. What was it that caused all the trouble? Shingles. An exacerbation of the same virus that causes chicken pox.
I can't imagine how one would begin to pay medical bills without having insurance. Joe talks about patients in the heart hospital all the time that have no medical coverage. Recently one comes to mind. A thirty-one year old male from Clinton, just released, will likely have a $250K medical bill follow him home. At least that's what Joe estimated his bill to be. After all, he was in the hospital for two weeks.
But, Eighty-one hundred dollars? Just for an ER visit? Un-fucking-real!
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3 comments:
Yeah, but that's the hospital charges, not the insurance allowables. What the hospital bills doesn't really mean anything. It's freaky. I write off tens of thousands of dollars every day...BCBS is the worst. If every patient we saw was insured with Blue Cross, we'd be out of business. Their allowables are less than Medicaid in many cases.
Most places will cut a deal for people with no insurance...at least we do.
But you're right, if you don't have insurance, you're f*cked.
I hope Joe is feeling better...I know he must be in a lot of pain and discomfort...hugs to all y'all.
And how are YOU doing, Mister?
Thank Gd it was only shingles (still could be very painful, unlike chicken pox).
I work in a hospital and it breaks my heart to see so many people without insurance and knowing that they're probably going to lose everything because of the outrageous bills. It's so sad that the most powerful country in the world can't take care of it's own people but will spend a trillion dollars on a needless war.
Good Lord! I,m suprised ANYBODY leaves any of Hot Springs hospitals alive! Luck was with the afflicted that day. Surprised he were not refered from Quack to Quack till all had relieved him of his life savins,leaving unpaid bill for his grandchildren to pay.Ah yes,the health (?) care machine in Hot Springs lives on.
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