The one and only time I did not have to wait in the ER or see the bill payment people was when I staggered into the ER at Chicago’s Northwestern Hospital during an episode of anaphylaxis.
Hell they didn’t even ask my name - as soon as the triage nurse realized what was going on she must have signaled someone because two guys bodily picked me up, dumped me a on a gurney, and ran me back into a treatment bay.
NOT having to wait in the ER is a Very Bad Sign. If they jumped you to the front of the line you’re in a very bad situation.
Other than that, though - yeah, it sucks to have to dicker about payment before you see the doc.
Nearly a year ago, I visited my GP about the pains in my legs. She examined me and sent me to the nurse, who collected an armful of blood for tests. Three days later, the GP phoned me and said she was referring me to a haematology consultant.
A week later, I went to the phlebomist at my local hospital to empty the other arm, and the following day, I had a long consultation with the consultant, who told me \i had multiple myeloma. (Why is it always plural?)
The treatment is a load of assorted pills and a weekly injection in the stomach, which has since been reduced to monthly. This is administered in a specialist cancer unit where the staff seem to be chosen for their friendly and helpful attitude. The good news is that although there is no cure, this has stopped any deterioration. I have to get a blood test two days before each visit, and for my convenience, a district nurse calls at my home to take it.
What will annoy you USians, is that at no point whatsoever has anyone asked for money or “proof of insurance”.
My husband was recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma, and I’ve done a moderate amount of research. It’s possible for it to not be multiple when it’s diagnosed, but very rare. At least in the US, they often just say “myeloma” now, however.
Oh, and we’ve heard a lot about insurance. Two of the drugs used to treat it are in the list of grossly overpriced drugs.
Lenalidomide/Revlomid:
But Revlimid is also, I soon learned, extraordinarily expensive, costing nearly $1,000 for each daily pill. (Although, I later discovered, a capsule costs just 25 cents to make.)
Or from Wikipedia:
Since its approval, Revlimid cost has increased 26 times.[35] According to a deposition by a Celgene executive, marked as highly confidential, the manufacturing cost of each Revlimid pill has remained approximately $0.25 throughout this period.[37] Celgene claimed its patent protected Revlimid until 2027, and has engaged in several practices to prevent other manufacturers from producing a generic version of the drug, including refusing to sell the drug to other drug makers for testing purposes.[35].
Also daratumumab, but I’ve lost the article about it. Maybe I’ll find it later. But it, too, has had enormous price increases basically just because the market will bear the cost.
This is the pit, right? Fuck the blood-sucking pharmaceutical industry.
That’s where i hope my husband’s treatment ends up. He’s currently on 4 drugs, those plus dexamethasone and Bortezomib (Velcade). He’s also on lenalidomide 21 days out of 28, but gets the other three weekly.
I’ve read that the main reason the US didn’t continue on the universal medicine route it started with Medicaid is that then white people would have to be treated in the same hospitals as black people. Yes, racism is why we can’t have nice things.
But isn’t that the standard, and hence a problem with controlling medical costs? Whn does anyone get a menu of medical services with costs? It’s all, “We decide what treatment you get and then hide the costs from you until billing.”
By “the terms of business” I was referring to that policy about which the OP was complaining, being required to submit payment up front, not to mention asking for references etc.
To your point, I agree completely, since (as with prescriptions) everyone gets a different cost based on what insurance they do or don’t have. But this wasn’t the topic of the OP.
BTW, on the issue of SSN and a lot of other stuff being asked for on forms, my husband went to a new specialist this week, and there were pages of stuff asked for, including SSN, and pages of signatures to acknowledge compliance with various laws and policies. I left off a lot of information which I didn’t have, including the SSN, and when I handed in the paperwork, the clerk just leafed quickly through it to make sure all the necessary signatures were there. So they will just get along without the information we didn’t provide.
This one makes sense to me. It takes multiple recurring scars on the myelin sheath before you would have symptoms. A single event (which is what I had) doesn’t count.