TimFountain

So 5 year old son was messing around about a month ago and managed to bang his head on the side of the fireplace resulting in a nice shiner, an egg, 3 stitches and 1/2 hour of time in the ER.

We got a letter from the hospital saying that they had billed our insurance for $475. Ok not so bad I thought.

Yesterday we got another bill, from the doctor, for $2504. Now the doctor attended for all of about 20 seconds, there was no x-ray and a nurse did the stitching! The doctor just looked at him, asked a couple of questions and instructed the nurse.

I think this is a totally unreasonable amount of money for the services rendered. Even with our most expensive company provided health plan, we are on the hook for 20% of this, and I am pissed off. God the health care here drives me crazy, it is so inefficient and bureaucratic.

Anyone have any ideas how I can protest this, I think they are trying to pull a fast one?

Thanks for letting me vent!

- Tim

Mummy in the foothills

You always get billed seperatly for the hospital, and the doctor and also for x-ray services. It sucks, as you never can tell what the costs will be.
We went to the ER when Ds had fallen on his elbow playing hacky sac. One x-ray and one doctor later, it was too swollen inside to see if it was broken. So no treatment, just a sling, and a bill a month later for close to $2,000 that was doc/x-ray/hospital and we had insurance.

Duncan Roberts

Call up the hospital and ask for a breakdown of the charge. It could be as simple as they used the wrong code on their billing system. I had a claim for $900 rejected after I'd seen a resident in the hospital. Turned out they had accidentally billed it as in patient instead of out patient. The re-bill was for a little under $200 and was paid in full.

lisa67

even by US standards that sounds a lot to me...DS's xray for possible broken finger only amounted to $640

snowbunny

You can request to have an audit done on the bill.

Deedee13

oh the in-patient, out-patient scam. Been there, done that! Bloody amazing. I check every bill I get. I dont have out of pocket expenses persay anymore since the township has now given us a credit card with $4000 which is our deductable. But I still want to know what is going where!!

fatbrit

It's legalized theft.

SpoogleDrummer

When my dog got ran over he had X-rays, which then discovered a cracked hip as well as his hip not being formed correctly so he had to do surgery to make the joint deeper. Grand total was $150. I would imagine x-raying a person is a bit easier than a dog so not sure why the cost is so much more. If I ever get ran over I'm off to the vet.

Dodgykeeps

My son did the same thing when we were in Florida a couple of years ago - we took him to a walk-in clinic (as this was before we moved over here) and they charged $240 for exactly what you described there. Got most of it back through our travel insurance

I think you've been fleeced!

Dan725

Welcome to the world of medical billing. Lying deceitful disgrace of an industry, the primary aim of which is to cause as much confusion as possible in order to maximise the lining of their own pockets.

What will most likely be the case with your bill I'd say is that the insurance will dispute it with some mythical "Amount charged exceeds limit for procedure" deal, and how much they will pay. Then the doctor will send you a new adjusted bill for the "correct" amount.

It truly turns my stomach the way they all go about business. I also think its really stupid the amount of contradictory statements you endlessly receive....but thats all part of the game mentioned above - keep everyone guessing and confused, maximise profit.

The whole industry is one giant legalized pyramid multi level marketing scheme.

Duncan Roberts

Most of the time that isn't the case. If you see what medical billers have to deal from the government, from their employers, from the insurance companies and from insurance gateways, with you may start to see why things get messed up from time to time. There is a reason why they have degrees in medical billing and coding.

NC Penguin

Don't talk to me about errors and misleading info in relation to medical coding.:curse:

fatbrit

My experience has been the opposite.

The Horticulturalist

that's waaaaay more than we were billed for similar thing/time in the ER with our child, I would query it.

Ash UK/US

In part it is because you are paying for the people who use ER as a doctors office and who can't afford to pay the bill.