I must apologize. I’ve been following your saga and wishing you well for a long time but haven’t posted because I’m not a long-term SDMB friend of yours. I don’t know why I gave in to the impulse today. Please ignore my question, which probably seemed odd coming out of the blue like that.
I’ll go back to silently cheering you on from here.
To be fair, as far as I can tell, the hospital that did the damage hasn’t charged me anything. However, the insurance did pay them nearly half a million if I read the statement right. (I have no love for the insurance company but it hardly seems fair that my insurance should be paying for the hospital’s mistake. That should be entirely on the hospital.)
The bills I’m receiving are for other services such as rehab centers, ambulance services, and home care.
At some point, you should hit your “out of pocket” limit on your policy. I can’t imagine that you haven’t hit it yet, in fact, given all your expenses, even your out-of-network limit. Hell, we hit our in-network OOP limit in April with just two surgeries. I know your original surgery and hospital recovery were last year, but do check on how things stand for this year.
Verify with the IV fluid place to make sure they’re billing insurance. Even if you had, say, a 6,000 deductible and then they pay 70%, it’s hard to imagine how the residual 30% would add up to 3,000 dollars (that’s a 10,000 fee).
He’s been sick for a long time now. Could add up to that much, over time.
Absolutely - even just counting since January 1 (new plan year, presumably). But it’s worth checking to be sure he’s not getting double billed and that insurance has processed everything correctly.
We hit our out of pocket limit in April… and our insurance charged us for several services for my daughter that were incurred well after that time.
DavidM, I know you’re getting hammered by expenses right and left. If you have not looked into bankruptcy, it may be worth considering.
To be fair? Seriously?
How is it fair? Yeah, they didn’t bill you for their services, but surely they should be covering the costs of all the after care as well, it ALL results from their error after all.
I don’t think anything is fair here. You can’t work, your expenses are mounting and you’re supposed to be focused on getting well. Not worried about paying your rent or going bankrupt!
That’s not fair, that’s cruel to my mind.
Couldn’t agree more. I had a hip replacement early in February of this year. The recovery has not gone according to the surgeon’s plan. Surely not according to MY plan. I recently did a rough accounting. Including the 6 months before the surgery where I was having images taken to track the decay of my right hip socket, I’m hovering JUST around $ 100,000 in gross billing. Our plan is okay but not great. I have yet to hit my deductible limits. Bills just…keep…pounding away.
I really feel for you, pal. You’re doing what you can to stay afloat. Keep at that !!!
The hospital should be on the hook for all of it, not just what happens at their facility. Keep the records and work with your attorney.
I am not a malpractice attorney, and my comments are about general principles, not this case in particular of our fellow doper and friend, davidm.
But perforations during colonoscopy are generally considered risks of having the procedure, not automatically evidence of improper actions, much less malpractice.
So it could be a high bar to try to clear, to prove malpractice, unless much more than that went on.
Again, I am not making an opinion on this case, only stating an observation.
This is what I’m concerned about.
I just saw my surgeon for a follow up. I’m constantly learning new things about what happened with me.
She told me that she had to leave my abdomen open for days covered with a bandage and that I was taken back to the OR several times. I shudder to think about it!
How are you doing now, davidm? Physically, fiscally, and otherwise?
Physically, I’m getting stronger every day. Fiscally, we’ll see.
I’ve started a GoFundMe campaign for help with medical expenses.
https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=863657
I just heard from my nurse. My bloodwork looks good so they’re cutting me back from 3 to 2 bags of IV fluids a week. Progress!
Progress, a very good thing! Happy to hear it’s going in a positive direction.
My bloodwork showed that I’m a little anemic, so I made liver and onions for dinner tonight. You really appreciate eating when you had to go months without it!
Thanks for the update on your continued improvement.
My blood sugar is elevated. Damn, I hope I don’t become diabetic from all of this.
Has it been elevated every time it’s been checked, or just in the last test?
Also, are you doing better financially now?