Cost: Whatever I paid for the food I brought him as the hospital food was unpalatable to him.

Actual hospital cost: 0$

He had a major, risky surgery and so many scans and procedures.

You have a Medicare Advantage plan, which limits your medical access to in-network facilities - aside from emergencies (the original visit).

They are all known to charge a fortune for nothing here.
Second, did Medicare really pay that? They usually only pay a fraction of what is billed. The
vast overcharging by these places is part of the whole obscene system here. We need control on all costs immediately. You are lucky they covered a large portion or all of it.

As for the ct scan it probably was not needed, but it should not cost the overinflated price they charged you. It would never cost that much at radiology facility not attached to an er/hospital. On the other hand if you had had a head injury as well, which can happen and can be serious, at least you know now everything is ok, hopefully. 😁

They also we will sometimes give you woefully inadequate information about what is covered.

Why we need a medical truth in billing law in this country...

I know a retired Doc here who is swimming in money from gaming the system. He's now in his 80s and has his name on a couple buildings.

I went to him once about 40 years ago. He was an average Doctor, but he was good at playing the game.

Stopped them from having price controls on drugs. We need price controls on everything.

at all levels on this while pharma milks the cash cow.

On edit. Of course not just pharma. The rest of billing is due to our F'd up system

Canada does not have pharmicare, when they get that it will be better and you won't have to depend on which province you are in for coverage of certain things. Still their prices are much lower in general than here.

I believe Medicare and insurance companies don't actually pay those astronomical fees. They have the power to refuse to pay them. It's uninsured people that get stuck with those ridiculous bills. I really hope they didn't pay that full charge.

they are really going to get. I've, in the past posted numbers of what the places billed and what Medicare paid. Medicare's 80% will probably be a couple of hundred dollars and the insurance company will be happy to pay the rest for about $50 or so. I've seen numbers like that. It's so nice to get my Medicare/Medigap notice that I will not have to pay anything.

It's only the uninsured/uninsured that owe that kind of money and end up in bankruptcy. And those that can't afford it at ll, well what do those facilities care abut "human chattel"? Let them eat cake.

outside of your geographical area.

For a non-emergency situation, it may not pay anything outside of the network. There are some limits on what you can be charged, depending on whether the provider accepts Medicare (from the amount Medicare would have paid - to unlimited).

so on Christmas day she had to find a place to remove it. She is on Medicare and Medicaid due to disability. We went to two different Urgent cares, one was closed another was open but didn't take her insurance (but did take Medicare just not Medicaid with Medicare). So we went to an ER run by the same company as the urgent care which didn't take her insurance. It did for the ER. So God alone knows what the less than 2 minute procedure cost the state. Major scam.

is located right next to Borger …

the asshole of the world … they will insert the enema tube there

Methane central. Oil wells, feed lots, gas station convenience stores, churches and a profoundly ignorant hubris that believes they’re God’s gift to the planet. No problem a gun can’t fix.

Same old criminal level shit.

What a crock.

I bit sutures out of a cut on my lip. (they bothered be and I ended up worrying the threads bare until they fell out.) No pain. I have never had numbing for sutures. Snip and pull, out they come.
On a related note, I have had 3 pairs of pins in my hands over the years. They got pulled without numbing. The 2 in the little finger were a quick ouch. The 2 pairs in my hands just felt a bit funny. The pair in my right hand I pulled them out while my doctor videoed.

Ordering a scan well after the fact is just a cash grab. I've heard horrible stories from some places in Texas where the doctors groupls own the medical practices and hospitals. Order everything they can to grab cash.

By that Texas ER.

NOT. The CT scan is a real money maker for the medical industrial complex. They take millions of unnecessary CT's and MRI's to pay for the machines and make a good profit on top.

After a major high speed car wreck in Georgia (not my fault) that totaled my car, I had trouble breathing and my chest hurt after the air bag hit me (well saved my life, too). The cops actually asked if I wanted an ambulance and it was like "dude, I don't have a car" so yeah. It drove me less than a mile to a hospital and charged me $400.

They took an X-ray of my chest. Got a bill from a doctor in Connecticut about 6 months later. He had "read" my X-ray remotely. I think the bill was about $2,000.

Insurance paid for the X-ray but I had to pay ambulance.

They took me in an ambulance to the local ER.

I sat two hours before they got around to giving me an EKG. They did a CT scan about two hours later to see if I had internal injuries.

Happily the chest pains proved to be bruising from the air bag, which was good because they told me they had no beds in the hospital.

They sent me home after about 8 hours, most of which involved waiting around.

The bill came to my house. $95,000 dollars!

Fortunately, or unfortunately since my car was destroyed and I did have pain, the other cars insurance company was on the hook since the young woman I hit ran a stop sign.

The hospital in question is about a mile and a half from my home. I told my wife if I ever have another emergency I want to be taken to the hospital about 15 miles away.

... and bring a whistleblower Qi Tam lawsuit against that Texas hospital for Medicare Fraud. You're quite likely not the only one whom they have used to defraud the Federal government and Medicare.

pretty much paid what doctors and hospitals charged.

Docs and hospitals learned to charge more every year because they too are greedy just like insurers. Then, Medicare and insurers went to fee schedules. Docs and Hospitals still charge amounts they know they won't receive.

In fact, on something like this even if you don't have insurance, one would probably negotiate the $20K down to several hundred dollars because that's about the best docs and hospitals are going to get from most insurance plans.

There is no fraud for charging Medicare or insurers a bizzillion dollars, as long as they don't go after the patient for the difference between Medicare's -- or other insurer's -- Allowed Amount and the astronomical/fictitious charge.

My experience of how things happen in the ER are negligible. I don't think I've been to an ER since I was in 2nd grade. But it seems to me that the CT scan and MR images could have been postponed until you had a chance to confer with your "regular" doctor. That would have avoided at least some of the charges, I'm guessing.

Just because you didn't shell out the money from your own pocket, doesn't mean the charges are fair or even accurate.

certain psychiatric treatments under certain conditions.

But few patients are experts in the type of injury or disease process that they have. And even if the patient is a doctor they generally prefer not to diagnose or treat themselves.

Patients should be given all of the information about their injury or disease process and allowed to make their choice. But their
choice shouldn't be influenced by misinformation given by a provider influenced by the profit motive.

is that if it was something significant and CT worthy, you would already be dead or in a coma, and not in the middle of a drive from Idaho to SC.

Since I'm not a doctor, just a registered nurse with four decades of experience, much of it in trauma, I will seek a second opinion.

Firmly believe many, or most of corporate medical care providers put their people under orders to run up the tab. And one of the biggest fraudsters, who ran a facility owned by the Frist family (one of whom was a US Senator) is Rick Scott, former FL governor and current US Senator.

of Dr.'s, ER's, etc doing all they can to add stuff on to increase their bottom lines, or the Corporations that own them adding on stuff.
It was bad the past years, but it is becoming common practice from what I can see........
The other thing I have seen, is even your regular Dr.'s billing for their full amount, after it was supposed to be covered by Medicare if they accepted medicare........When I have called, they ALWAYS say: "Oh we made a mistake"......my guess is they plan on a certain number of people that will just go ahead and pay it.

Same with them billing Medicare using a more expensive procedure code, and description of what they did, in hopes that it will just go through......

The Senator in Florida was CEO of a firm that corruptly billed Medicare for 1.4 Billion........He made a ton of money off the corruption, the firm paid the fine, and the people in Florida even voted him in as a Senator....

The entire Medical Industry and Pharmaceutical Industry has become a Humongous Criminal Enterprise................and it will only get worse with Trump/Musk destroying Medicare and Medicaid, and the Medical Insurance Corporations trying to get out of paying for anything.....

VCA and then they sold it for 6.7 BILLION to MARS Corporation (yes the candy people)

Prices skyrocketed under VCA, didn't think MARS could raise them any higher, and of course they did.


PS....Kevin Fitzgerald just came out with a book about his life.......everyone who loves pets, and every new vet should read it.!!!!!
He wrote it himself, he is a really great writer.

"IT STARTED WITH A TURTLE"

He has taken incredible care of six generations of our dogs.........an incredibly excellent vet, and great person.....

Any one who watched Emergency Vets will recognize him immediately. Fantastic and Colorful guy......

Covers his veterinarian stuff, His years as a Bouncer at all big name group's concerts back in the early 70's, his college years, his stand up comedy, etc.....

and that you weren't hit with the bill, but this overbilling to Medicare weakens the system. Bernie was always right that we need single payer.

because that's higher than getting most of them put in. Are you sure that's not the case, that this bill was for getting them in?

If not, it might be time to pay a lawyer a retainer fee to look the itemized bill over. There is usually a listing for those who specialize in medical fraud and malpractice. A retainer that triggers a nasty letter from a lawyer can save you money.

Don't stop in Texas! If you can avoid it, don't try to get anything medical done in Texas. Whee hoo, what a rip-off.

Never a charge. I miss that old guy.

Speaking of Amarillo, we crossed the border from NM at the end of January this year and the sign at the state line said "You are a felon"
quite a welcome.

Alcohol, a cotton ball, tweezers and fingernail scissors. Snip next to the skin and pull.

absolutely and utterly.

The whole sordid story is a warning to stay out of states run by republicans.

politician the used to be CEO of a health insurance company that committed the largest Medicare fraud in US history. Did he go to jail? No, he got elected Senator.

Do an unnecessary procedure and then charge an outrageous amount for it, knowing Medicare will cover it.

If the sutures were removed by the physician who did the suturing, there is usually no charge unless there is a complication.

If he had gone to another physician's office -- rather than ER -- for the suture removal, Medicare would have allowed roughly $60 at best. That office might have charged thousands of dollars, but all they'd end up with is $60.

I had a post in the Lounge about getting a ring cut off because tendinitis made it impossible to get off for an MRI.
A local jewelry store cut it for free, in about a minute & a half.
Out of curiosity, I called the hospital to see if they get get if off because I couldn't.
They said yes, so I asked about the cost. They said insurance would cover it, but I insisted on knowing the cost.EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!
For something a jewelry store did for free.

We have a profit making system which produces as much profit as possible while producing as little health care as possible as a byproduct.

Amarillo in 1983 and my sister, who is a nurse practitioner, is still there. The whole area is a study of what you get when an authoritarian zeitgeist governs a society.

But, there is a point in your experience of which everyone should be aware. Many little doc-in-the-boxes have been bought up by hospitals and so they can charge emergency room type fees. There should be a sign or notice near the entrance. I'm sure that this varies by state, Florida's law, HB 1157, was passed in 2021. Especially in towns like Amarillo, where there are basically only two hospital corporation systems for hundreds of miles in any direction, the need to keep profits rising has driven the corporations to explore ever more inventive means of profit making.

my parents sent me over to the neighbor who was a psychiatrist. After rummaging around in his junk drawer for an Excito Knife and pair of needle-nosed pliers he took care of it in less than a minute.

Taking out the stitches might make you pregnant.

No Doctors in Texas were arrested as a result of your visit.

I know more about medicine than those making laws in Texas.

Taken care of it for free. If you wanted.

I would have used infection control and it wouldn't hurt either. Disinfectant with lidocaine is a thing.

Plus, it wouldn't have been the first time I've removed stitches. When you grow up poor on a farm, you learn some things. I also have medical training so that helps.

If you wanted a haircut, I can do that too.

I draw the line at shaving, though. And none of this is a joke.

Honestly, I'm surprised that you didn't do it yourself.

❤️

No (upper lip) selfies, and after all that effort

Okay then, what of (at least) posting a current image

Maybe a photo from the lookout tower in the Idaho wilderness

The medical system in this country is so absolutely fucked up and greedy.

if it's not red, weeping or you are experiencing pain, no need to go. take them out yourself.

an emergency room doc told me that years ago.

pay $140.
whew!

You've been had by the unregulated, insurance and greed of corporate capitalism in America. No other country, with the exception of a former banana republic would dare to treat their citizens like this.