primitive goes to the emergency room

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022450146

Oh my.

CatWoman (67,816 posts)    Sat Mar 2, 2013, 12:39 PM

My visit to the ER yesterday

I had to go for treatment because my blood pressure was near stroke level.

I work for a govt. organization that employs primarily health care professionals. One of them looked me over, took my pulse and blood pressure and strongly urged I go to the emergency room.
 
I wanted to drive myself or have someone drive me to the VA hospital, but my boss insisted they call an ambulance. The ambulance drivers couldn't take me to the VA, as they were not accepting any more emergencies (I forgot the term they used for that).
 
After 5 hours in the ER, they got my pressure under control and then the bullshit began.
 
Before I could check out (and have my drivers license and insurance card returned), I had to go to financial services to discuss my bill and payment arrangements. My part of the bill was over $500 (not including the ambulance).
 
And before they would discuss payment arrangements with me, I had to give them $100.
 
What's wrong with this picture?

I kept thinking back to all those selfish ****s with the "hands off my government medicare" signs during the AHCA debates.
 
And I can't help but wonder what they would have done (the hospital) if I didn't cough up the immediate $100?

There's something badly wrong with the story, but I can't put my finger on it.

Anybody else?

MiniMe (13,607 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 12:57 PM

5. What state are you in CatWoman?

You experience is frightening. I had a heart attack 2 years ago, had no insurance. Told them that from the moment I got to the hospital. Never had a problem, and that was without insurance. I am in Maryland, not sure if that makes a difference or not.

CatWoman (67,816 posts)    Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:01 PM

7. I'm in Georgia and my opinion is they (the health care system) will be bolder with someone with insurance than without it.
 
However, I do think your being in Maryland does make a difference.

BTW - It's snowing here

rsmith6621 (6,518 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:06 PM

8. Took My 29 YO Daughter To The ER

...last week for tooth pain. After the Dr told her "you know we don't staff Dentist in the ER don't you" he wrote her perscipts of antibiotics, aspirin and Vicodin and we didn't see from him again.
 
The financial counselor came in and took information down and then asked her for her insurance card,she is unemployed and no insurance. So the worker said the total for a 7 minute visit was $601 BUT if she paid NOW it would only be $325,she has no income.
 
I spoke up and asked the worker if they had any grant apps she could fill out and she gave her the standard hospital charity poverty form. So then I said to her if you will accept $325 now why wont you accept it in 2 weeks when she gets her tax return back. She was unable to answer.
 
I said that $325 is what the visit really cost right and $601 is what you would charge an insurance company right she agreed. So basically I said you use this discount in fact to further hammer down those with nothing and exploit peoples insurance? She said those are the options have a good day.
 
My wife and I took the charity form from our daughter to fill out, one of those corporate hospital donors can pay the bill.

^^^one of the best writers of bouncies on Skins's island.

elleng (38,546 posts)    Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:15 PM

26. No such thing occurred in DC Monday, when I took husb ('stranged) to ER, where we 'resided' for more than 6 hours, much waiting, and most in a 'room,' having been triaged. He had fallen in shower.
 
When we arrived they took and photo'd his insurance ID (and maybe his photo driver's license,) returned them shortly thereafter. At NO TIME did they ask for ANY reimbursement.
 
While there they did blood tests and chest x-ray, and gave him i.v. pain meds.

I have no idea why the disparity in experiences. Different insurance???

^^^must be planning on getting back with the ex, because he got all their stuff in the divorce.

And then up pops Ugly, she with the face like Hindenburg's:

Warpy (67,350 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:29 PM

29. Insulting, isn't it?

I was treated a lot better at the county hospital 3 years ago when I went in with septic shock. Once I got onto a gurney and got hooked up to the monitors and a nurse said "Oh shit! Get the doc in here!" things went as well as they could have. The financial person came in and listened to the fact that I wasn't made of money and had no insurance since the mid 80s and that's the last I heard of it. I was kept in ER holding because it was cheaper and given ICU level care. They apologized the last day because they needed the bed and had to send me to the expensive step down unit. They bent over backwards to keep the bill low as possible and didn't harass me on the way out.
 
I was actually shocked by how low that bill was when I got it, so I paid in full without a peep of protest. Yeah, it hurt to write a check that big but I was alive to write it.
 
Except for writing the big check once I'd gotten home, I'd say this is how it should be in any rational health care system. There should be no harassment at point of service, no demand of money from people who are sick and barely able to go home.
 
I hate the health care nonsystem in this country. It combines the most inefficiency with the maximum of cruelty. I worked in it off and on for most of my life and I've seen the changes as soon as MBAs got into management and those changes have all been bad ones.
 
It needs a complete overhaul, starting with getting docs who are too old to practice back into management, tossing the MBAs back to running supermarket chains, and instituting single payer insurance.

mykpart (3,836 posts)    Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:47 PM

32. You should have told them you would give them the $100 as soon as they located the diamond bracelet you had on when you came in. Put them on the defensive.

[Tucker]

Where's Nads explaining the ambulance fee's?

[thundley4]

I said that $325 is what the visit really cost right and $601 is what you would charge an insurance company right she agreed. So basically I said you use this discount in fact to further hammer down those with nothing and exploit peoples insurance? She said those are the options have a good day.

Hospitals charge insurance companies more to make up for  money lost to  the leeches that don't pay their bills.  Things really went down hill when the government told hospitals that they could not turn away patients. 

Now people run to the ER for paper cuts and the sniffles.

[GOBUCKS]

When W was in office, all the other DUmmies would have chimed in to agree with this ludicrous emergency room bouncy.

I'm surprised DUmmy elleng is pulling a Straight Story bouncy, helping her ex-husband like a spouse. In the DUmp boobyhatch the other day, she was describing how she left him after he beat the hell out of her.

And DUmmy rsmithnumbers is an entertaining bouncy writer. Although he's one of the truly stupidest people at the DUmp, several times a week he describes how he's again used his razor sharp intelligence as a weapon for putting rich repukes and other miscreants in their place. Now that he's permanently unemployed, he should soon become a bouncy star.

[USA4ME]

CatWoman

I had to go for treatment because my blood pressure was near stroke level.

Get back with me when you meet and exceed stroke level, you racist trash.

.

[Dori]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022450146

Oh my.

There's something badly wrong with the story, but I can't put my finger on it.

Anybody else?  

Before I could check out (and have my drivers license and insurance card returned), I had to go to financial services to discuss my bill and payment arrangements. My part of the bill was over $500 (not including the ambulance).
 
And before they would discuss payment arrangements with me, I had to give them $100.

Sounds like the primitive has a type of health insurance plan where they have to meet a $100 hospital co-pay.  Also, insurance companies have a payment schedule for hospital services and this hospital is charging more for their services than the primitave's insurance will pay.  

[franksolich]

Sounds like the primitive has a type of health insurance plan where they have to meet a $100 hospital co-pay.

Is that the way it works?

I've noticed she mentioned "insurance card," and was wondering why payment was being requested.

And so I thought it might be a bouncy, given that seeming contradiction.

And yes to the obvious question--I've been treated in emergency rooms before.....but being deaf, someone else has always been along with me to take care of the clerical matters, I never had to.

[RobJohnson]

Hospitals charge insurance companies more to make up for  money lost to  the leeches that don't pay their bills.  Things really went down hill when the government told hospitals that they could not turn away patients. 

Now people run to the ER for paper cuts and the sniffles.

What the hospital bills as their price and what my insurance pays them is much less. My insurance company only pays a small percentage of the hospital bill due to the PPO contracts.

I was asked for a $100 deposit at one hospital when I was taken to a hospital room prior to having my appendix out. I was taken in by ambulance to Las Vegas. Luckily I did have my wallet. I simply explained to the lady that my out of pocket costs for the year have been met and I had 100% coverage. The lady simply said "then we won't worry about it."

I was in three different hospitals last year, and that was the only time they had asked me for money.

I have heard of a local hospital in my little town asking a guy for his  $500 hospital coinsurance as they wheeled him out in the wheelchair at discharge. He simply told them "I did not have time to grab my wallet before I collapsed." I was just at the same hospital for some outpatient stuff, I had to pay upfront. More and more places that simply just "took my card" are starting to ask for money up front.

[marv]

"Insurance card" might refer to a medicaid card. Medicaid is taxpayer supported charity, not insurance.

[whiffleball]

BS.  I probably have the same insurance that this DUmmie has.  If I use the hospitals here in Georgia they never send me to financial services.  They have asked for upfront money for xrays when I register, but I tell them they can bill me after my insurance pays.  They've never turned me away after I say that, never.  But, I always pay my bill.

My guess is that this DUmmie ended up at Grady in Atlanta.  Big charity hospital, few payers.  She could have gone to Emory or another.   

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Warpy (67,350 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 02:29 PM

29. Insulting, isn't it?

I was treated a lot better at the county hospital 3 years ago when I went in with septic shock.

"3 years ago"

"3 years ago"

What was different 3 years ago?

[formerlurker]

rsmith6621 (6,518 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:06 PM

8. Took My 29 YO Daughter To The ER

...last week for tooth pain. After the Dr told her "you know we don't staff Dentist in the ER don't you" he wrote her perscipts of antibiotics, aspirin and Vicodin and we didn't see from him again.
 
The financial counselor came in and took information down and then asked her for her insurance card,she is unemployed and no insurance. So the worker said the total for a 7 minute visit was $601 BUT if she paid NOW it would only be $325,she has no income.
 
I spoke up and asked the worker if they had any grant apps she could fill out and she gave her the standard hospital charity poverty form. So then I said to her if you will accept $325 now why wont you accept it in 2 weeks when she gets her tax return back. She was unable to answer.
 
I said that $325 is what the visit really cost right and $601 is what you would charge an insurance company right she agreed. So basically I said you use this discount in fact to further hammer down those with nothing and exploit peoples insurance? She said those are the options have a good day.
 
My wife and I took the charity form from our daughter to fill out, one of those corporate hospital donors can pay the bill.

Corporate donor = state taxpayer you moron.

It would have been far cheaper to see an actual dentist by the way.

[diesel driver]

Corporate donor = state taxpayer you moron.

It would have been far cheaper to see an actual dentist by the way.

At least, until Barry decides we need an (un)affordable dental care act, to go with his (un)affordable health care act.

Besides, what kind of brain dead moronic DUmbass takes someone to an ER for a toothache?   

(I know what that ER doc was thinking:  "Damned Obama voter!")   

That's like showing up at a boat dock to catch an airplane.

[AprilRazz]

rsmith6621 (6,518 posts)   Sat Mar 2, 2013, 01:06 PM

8. Took My 29 YO Daughter To The ER

...last week for tooth pain.

Long wait in the ED? You can thank morons like this.

[JohnnyReb]

Long wait in the ED? You can thank morons like this.

Well, look on the bright side of long waits in the ER for DUmmies as short waits for a slab in the morgue.

[Maxiest]

Is that the way it works?

I've noticed she mentioned "insurance card," and was wondering why payment was being requested.

And so I thought it might be a bouncy, given that seeming contradiction.

And yes to the obvious question--I've been treated in emergency rooms before.....but being deaf, someone else has always been along with me to take care of the clerical matters, I never had to.

The Health Insurance I had a few years ago went to $100 ER visit co-pays because people where just showing up at ER's with the sniffles and coughs.  Even people with insurance.  And of course this was costing the insurance companies tons of money, as you can imagine an ER visit is a lot more than just an office visit.

And, as you mentioned Frank... most of the times I went to the ER just my insurance info was taken. 

Now one time, a few years ago, a huge piece of glass broke and feel into the top of my foot.  When the visit was over I did go to a payment window and was asked if I would like to pay the $100 dollar co-pay or have it billed to me.

[Tucker]

Hospitals are closing down because of the illegal aliens who show up, get treated and don't pay.

Nadin it.

[seahorse513]

Went to the er for tooth pain!!! seriously??? Just stfu, take aan ibuprofen or whatever, drink lots of liguids, don't chew on that side, stick with soups if you can. and call your dentist asap...

[JohnnyReb]

Went to the er for tooth pain!!! seriously??? Just stfu, take aan ibuprofen or whatever, drink lots of liguids, don't chew on that side, stick with soups if you can. and call your dentist asap...

Holding warm salty water in your mouth is good for tooth pain

[Carl]

Holding warm salty water in your mouth is good for tooth pain

I would suggest for DUmmies self extraction with Bidens shotgun suggestion.