Call them and negotiate. It doesn’t hurt to try. My friend’s roommate had a similar situation as this, but did absolutely nothing and got stuck with a massive medical bill. She could have negotiated the price or arranged a payment plan.
It sucks what happened, but look at it this way- you paid $1300 to find out how to negotiate and ask for things in writing before spending any money. You could have been stuck with a much higher bill depending on the medical condition/location too.
There are a few bus routes I hate because they go to the local county hospital, and uninsured folks know an ambulance ride costs $1,000 so they’d rather vomit, bleed, and seizure all inside the bus to save $998 on the trip there.
Aetna and Humana do, and I imagine most other large carriers have them. Not that you couldn’t just access their web databases from a smartphone anyway.
Urgent Care offers evening hours, weekend, holidays. Lab and imaging stat. It is more expensive, for convenience.
A visit with your primary doctor would be less usually. And copays would be less expensive. Your insurance probably covers the visit. My doctors have a few same day visits, sometimes you can call and check for cancellations. Or we can get you in with someone else. This is why it is good to establish with a physician and see them once a year. If the OP had been established, and the doctor knew her, it might have even just been a phone call and a script.
Best thing for pink eye besides an antibiotic, is to create a small dish of very diluted warm soapy water (Palmolive works best) and frequently (every few minutes) wipe out the gunk in your infected eye. Your symptoms should clear up in several hours.
Wait until you get the bill in the mail, then call and talk 'em down. You’ll get transferred to the department of Willy Nilly’s. My experience is that they’ll listen.
Many years ago, I took off the tip of my finger with a vegetable slicer. I actually knew that my local ER was in-network for my plan, so I went there. I was later shocked to get a huge bill from the doctor I saw in the ER, and found out that even if a hospital is in-network, the doctors themselves are not always employees of the hospital - they’re often members of their own practices, and may not be in-network. Which completely sucks for an ER, where you have no ability to choose the doctor who’ll treat you. After about a year of letters back and forth between the doctor’s practice, the hospital, the insurance company, and the state insurance board, I got them to cover his bill at in-network rates - after pointing out that saying that hospital’s ER is in-network but then not covering all the ER costs is perilously close to fraud.
Hate to take the ER’s side, but you’d have no case against them because when you were admitted, you or your wife signed an agreement to pay which detailed exactly what you’d be responsible for and when. If you had issues with cost, that would have been the time to address it. They could have verified insurance coverage and limited services or referred you elsewhere if necessary. However, you can negotiate with them and should.
When I had my surgery, I went to an in-network hospital.
I later got a huge bill directly from the Anesthesiologist, because he was a “contractor” to the hospital. My wife complained to our insurance provider and they said - “They can’t do that - it’s against the terms of the hospital’s agreement with us. Don’t pay the bill, and have them submit it to us.”
We ended up not paying for the service. But, it took a bit of persistence.
I have a little sympathy for the ER regarding the amount they charge. There are lots of costs we don’t see. What is inexcuable is making people sign agreements to pay whatever the hospital wants before being allowed medical care. There is no reason a hospital couldn’t give patients some sort of estimate of the cost beforehand. Will it cost $1? Will it cost $1 million?
Medical businesses are unique. Somehow, no medical business can figure out within two orders of magniture what a procedure will cost a patient, even a procedure they do over and over every day. The only option is to force patients to sign agrees to give up ALL their money if asked. Little wonder a lot of people don’t pay their ER bills.
We had the same situation several years ago and ended up going to the State Insurance Commissioner. Very shortly after his office got involved the hospital and insurer managed to come to an agreement that didn’t involve more money from me!
I am a veterinarian, and I do exactly this. I present a written treatment plan, with exact costs outlined, and ask a client to sign it, giving me permission to perform the recommended treatment before I do anything other than the physical exam on their pet. I don’t understand how human doctors are allowed to do whatever without permission, and without disclosure of patient costs, and then demand payment.
I don’t think I have a legal case either but fwiw, as far as I know, neither of us signed anything. I certainly didn’t, and my wife didn’t come out of wherever they took her with a copy of anything. I’ll have to ask her if she signed anything back there.
Yep. A few months ago I went to the ER because I cut myself badly and it was after hours. I have insurance and ended up getting billed my $100 co-pay because I wasn’t admitted, and the rest of the $1600 bill was covered.
(But I do believe there should be universal health care.)
I agree with this. My insurance has a stipulation about ER care if my doctor’s office is open, of course they want me to see my PCP first whenever possible since she’s the cheapest option. But if her office is closed, or she refuses to see me for whatever reason, like she’s booked or is otherwise unavailable even during her normal posted hours, then an ER visit is covered (with a $150 co-pay).
