fighting the power (RANT ALERT)

[Tacoma]

so dig:

Jan 3rd I go spar with this kid, he throws a wildass kick (a good one, too), breaks my nose. No biggie... reading that it's a good idea to get it fixed fairly quickly, I hedge and hedge and make the big mistake of heading up to the Tooele ER-- on a Sunday afternoon. I walk in and say "I have a broken nose and I would like to get it set." It's obviously crooked.
They admit me, and stick me in a room for over 3hrs. Doc comes, says let's get some XRays, more waiting. X rays get taken, tech says yeah, look, broken uh huh. Doc sees me says yup, it's broken (duuuuurrrr no ****), BUT WE DONT" TREAT THIS, you need to go see the ear nose throat guy.
Naturally I'm pissed because a. I had to wait so long (one other guy in the ER) and b. the no doubt enormous bills being rung up.

so I get it fixed by Dr. Palmer, costs me about $150, woo hoo.
Hospital bills start coming yesterday: $542 for the ER, and $322 for the doctor. The radiology bill has not come yet.

now..... To my way of thinking, that is F"ING RIDICULOUS, especially considering that they admitted me for an obvious problem they knew damn well they weren't going to do anything about.

so. The question is this: I intend to dispute all charges but the XRays, since they are an actual service that was actually provided. Has anyone else whipped the hospital's ass into submission or do you all think I'm just gonna have to pay it anyway?

oh yeah, they charged extra for the doc's "Sunday service"... wtf?


[/RANT]

 

[onetuff76]

Good Luck!

 

[RockMonkey]

How is your insurance? Is it going to cover most/all of it? If so, let it go. I assume since you are posting this, that the bills will have to be paid by you. If you are paying this bill, you must have no (or crappy) insurance. If you knew that, why did you go to the ER? ER's are freak'n expensive (everyone knows that, right?). You waited for a few days, in that time you should have done a bit of research on who you should go see. Sorry, but I think you need to take some responsibility for this. Either way, I don't think the hospital is going to let you off.

 

[Tacoma]

self employed: no insurance. Why? because it's $700 a month with any kind of decent coverage.
I wouldn't have gone up there EXCEPT everything I'd read said not to wait too long. I consulted a couple nurses and one surgeon before going.
I only waited about a day....

I don't mind paying for ER visits, when required heheheh but when they admit you KNOWING they're not going to treat you, I'm not sure that's reasonable.

 

[RockMonkey]

A day? You said that happened january 3rd? I have a calendar... The third is a Monday, and you went to the ER on Sunday. That's closer to a week than a day. The emergency room employees are trained to treat each patient as an emergency. That's why it's called an emergency room. They don't just turn people away. They prolly wanted to make sure there were no other injuries that were actual emergencies that needed treatment NOW. You went to the emergency room, you used their services, you need to pay. If I take my computer to a technician, he spends his time to determine a problem, and then I go to Best buy to buy parts, I'm still going to pay the technician that I went to see. Emergency rooms are VERY EXPENSIVE to run, and so they're expensive to use. That's part of why insurance is so expensive. It seems to me that you used their services, now you should pay the bill.

 

[Caleb]

self employed: no insurance. Why? because it's $700 a month with any kind of decent coverage.
I wouldn't have gone up there EXCEPT everything I'd read said not to wait too long. I consulted a couple nurses and one surgeon before going.
I only waited about a day....

I don't mind paying for ER visits, when required heheheh but when they admit you KNOWING they're not going to treat you, I'm not sure that's reasonable.

well, IMO, you walk-in on your own free will and want to get checked out. They wont refuse you for the fact that what if there was something more than just a broken nose. They tell you we dont treat broken noses so never admitting you, but because there is something in addtion wrong you have serious problems, now the hospital is at a huge risk for turning you away. Usually they will take payments, any kind of payment as long as its something but I have rarely heard of medical debt going away short of BKY...it wont hurt to call and dispute it, explain the situation CALMLY and see what they can do.


on a side note, I find it funny that if you go to the ER admit yourself and are calm (pain or not) it takes FOREVER to get treated. When my jeep fell on my leg that was the case, and when I wrecked on a fourwheeler on the salt flats...both times it was around midnight-oneish and both times i took atleast three-four hours to get checked out (I only went cause my wife made me go, I hate doctors and anything related to them, I would rather be in pain than go see a doctor )

 

[Caleb]

one more thing, you can get ins through most carriers (IHC, Altius, Blue Cross, etc) for around $200 a month...I know this cause we looked into at my work cause they raised their rates so stinkin high...the only downside is if you use it too much they can cancel you at anytime (because you would be individual and not part of a group)

 

[Shawn]

next time duck.
.

 

[Tacoma]

oops! I meant the 1st, a Saturday. Next day, Sunday. hahah woah.

Look, I already said I dont' mind paying for the Xrays, and I'll happily pay some amount for the incredibly short and fawking useless 'service' I received... but a grand? F**K NO. The admission nurse handed me a clipboard and pointed to a room, that's worth what? The doctor walked to the door and said go to another room, then took less than 3 minutes to tell me the obvious. That's worth his charge of $322 plus whatever the hospital charges for that?
I'm not trying to get out of anything but extortion. I'll pay my dues, and if it comes out that I have to pay all of it, so be it. I wonder WHY insurance is so expensive these days anyway. It was about $4k for my son's birth OFF insurance, $13k for my daughters ON insurance. Which one is closer to the real cost? I disagree that they are entitled to a thousand dollars for that visit.
This is also pretty much the last time I go to an ER on my own LOL next time it will be on a stretcher.

If you went to a computer tech and said: this is what is wrong with my computer, look, there's a hammer in the monitor, I need that fixed, and they looked at you, then said, yeah, there's a hammer in the monitor, then said we don't fix that, and handed you a bill for an hour's labor, you're telling me you wouldn't be pissed? you used their services, computer shops cost money etc etc.
It's just waaaaaaay too much for what they actually did for me. And I LIKE doctors.

 

[Skylinerider]

Tooele ER has been advertising that you'll be seen within 30 minutes. I don't know what happens if your not, but it could be leverage to get your $542 bill down. Go to billing and make a fuss.

 

[Caleb]

If you went to a computer tech and said: this is what is wrong with my computer, look, there's a hammer in the monitor, I need that fixed, and they looked at you, then said, yeah, there's a hammer in the monitor, then said we don't fix that, and handed you a bill for an hour's labor, you're telling me you wouldn't be pissed? you used their services, computer shops cost money etc etc.
It's just waaaaaaay too much for what they actually did for me. And I LIKE doctors.

if you are dumb enough to take your monitor into a computer store with a hammer through it and want it fixed then I would absolutely charge you an hours labor...my time rounds up to the nearest hour like I said before, you volunteeringly went in and admitted yourself, you will have a tough time saying its extortion...if they didn't have set rates (for ins. and non-ins.) you may be able to claim extortion...

 

[Tacoma]

well... so there are some valid points here. We'll see what happens tomorrow.


Shawn... smartass... I'm surprised it took 6 replies to get there

supergper: that sounds pretty good, that $200per... I should have mentioned that was the family rate

 

[Caleb]

supergper: that sounds pretty good, that $200per... I should have mentioned that was the family rate

oh, I didnt mention that IS the family rate (for 3-6 members)...

goto www.ihc.com and check it out for yourself...I just did it again and I got for a family (3-6 people) with a $500 deductible and a $25 copay its $200 a month for IHC Med $217 for Select Med and $250 for IHC Care...

 

[Tacoma]

wooooaaahhhh

ok, so THAT"S the cheapest I've heard of yet.... some agent will be getting a call in the AM.. thanks man! Now the Scrooge in me says that's a minimum 3k a year if anything happens, vs. avg yearly medical costs less than $500 for the last 6yrs...

heheeh kids kind of change things though.

 

[fjcruisin]

WOW, I just dropped bluecross at ~$390 per month for me and my daughter I've been looking for new ins. 200-250 for up to 6 members is great, but is it really that good? Ummm...insurance hi-jack

Tacoma, good luck.

Being "self insured" might be an option, grill an agent for some ideas.