This isn’t news, it just underscores how out-of-touch some demographics are to what most of us deal with.
Did he even get the full bill. Last time I went to an ER, I paid off something and then two years later got sent another bill. I called and said, this is a mistake, right? First lady said probably, everyone else said nope. This is your physician’s bill. The other one was a hospital bill. I asked, why did I then get it for the first time after a visit from TWO years ago?? What was goin on in the mean time? “Oh we were transitioning companies, probably something to do with that?” I tried to fight it, I got a reduced price, but that was so insane to me
I got hit with Lyme AFTER I lost my job last year. I got the bill for my ER visit, it sucked, but I was expecting it. To add insult to injury they sent me another bill, which was physician bill. The system is so fuvking stupid, it will kick you when you’re down. Next time I’m just flying to Europe somewhere to get a treatment.
WELL DUH!?
Maybe it was the Nestlé hospital?
Make Congress abide by the healthcare they make us abide by and this will be fixed overnight.
They live on a different planet. Our representatives are completely out of touch and there’s no bringing them back. For the few good ones there are 99 career polticians out there carving out a niche for themselves and their families.
99% agreed. I don’t believe there are currently any “good ones”. Everyone thinks “their guy” is going good and the rest suck and it’s why we never have change in the guard.
Who watches the watchmen? Well I’ve come up with a new branch named aptly:
The Duty Takers
Quite literally
I think public healthcare generally speaking doesn’t work, but it sure would work a whole lot better if the people who decide things would have to use the exact same version of it. I think a hybrid is the worst of both worlds.
Can’t the surgeon general just perform surgery on himself to save the money?
On February 14 I met my max out of pocket for the year. I had an upper and lower GI taken which is the bulk of the cost. My insurance is already refusing to cover some of my diabetes medication, because some people use it to lose weight (Mounjaro). I need it to keep my A1C levels under 10. I already weigh the ideal weight for my height. Because it’s so expensive and insurance doesn’t cover it, I will end up going without for the rest of the year. My old insurance covered it, but my company switched insurance in January. New insurance has never equaled better insurance. I’m so tired of insurance being tied to my job.
Have you tried any online Canadian pharmacies? That’s what we had to do for a few of the scripts that were exorbitantly expensive here in the States.
This medication isn’t available on a lot of those sites. I’ve looked, but I haven’t checked Canada yet. I’ll give it a go soon.
I just want to make sure one of the options you tried was a different medicine. Doctors can be pretty good about playing the insurance game sometimes
I love how it’s some bureaucrats job to decide what medication is best for his needs. Not OP, who had been having desired results prior to his employer switching insurance, and not his PCP, who is more closely tied to his outcomes than anyone else.
We have tried other medication, which is how we found that this one actually worked.
I had to ask. I’ve had doctors figure out how to best insurance
A couple years ago, I ended up in an ambulance due to what turned out to be a small urethra stone. At the hospital, I had an x-ray. When that didn’t find the problem, they gave me a CT scan. Once they found the stone, they called in a urologist. I got a consultation, prescription, passed the stone later that day (it was tiny), and recovered very quickly. My total bill was 243’000 Korean won - just about $200 USD. I only had the mandatory insurance that was paid for by my employer. Something to the tune of $50 a month that they are legally required to pay.
The US’s system is completely fucked. Broken beyond repair. I wish them luck.
In the US your 243000 would still be the correct amount, but it would be USD.
that was the cost of just my ambulance ride
In other countries, the ambulance is free. They’re just sitting there waiting around unless you use them, like firefighters. It makes no sense why it costs so much.
Do you ever have to decide if you want to call the fire department? No, it’s “see smoke, call fire department”.
Probably not for what OP described, but that’s pretty close to the amount they billed my insurance when I broke two bones in my arm.
US Medical Costs aren’t racked up by the complexity of the work or care being given, its by how many people are scheduled to see you, diagnose or provide care. Each of them has a set rate per appointment, so the 200,000 figure for a kidney stone that was confirmed by multiple different specialists is not far off. A broken arm at the ER is basically the trauma nurses, an emergency medical specialist, a surgeon or two, anesthesiologist and their respective teams. The more departments you get passed around to the more your bill goes up.
and 90% for upper administration and billing dept.
Feature not a bug
Only $5000? Dude got lucky. Fuck American healthcare.
Only $5000? He got lucky.
I wonder if he just noticed because it’s been capitalist hellscape for a long time now. Welcome to the trenches, fellow working class member. Your ability to have basic healthcare is based entirely around your ability to scrape enough money together between hospital visits. Failure to do so will have lifelong impacts, so I suggest you start eating cereal for dinner to save some cash for the next time you need basic human help.
If he thinks five grand is a big hospital bill, he’s not living in the real world.
5 grand for something that can be fixed by quite literally buying salt and distilled water (obviously give or take a month, but that doesn’t matter). Idk where you live but that shit is cheap where I am.
It’s not that 5 grand is a big bill. It’s that they’re charging 5 grand for salt water.
If it was fixed by salt water, why did he go to ER?
It is fixable with “salt water” he just didn’t know that at the time. That’s why he went to the ER to get checked out.
Saline, it’s fixed by saline.
Saline is salt mixed with distilled water, after about a month you can use it.
To your later comment, no your question is not an important one. You can’t figure out that salt/distilled water + a month of waiting ≠ 5000 dollars? Use your head.
Because it was a medical emergency?
Don’t go to the ER for dehydration. If it’s really that bad, find an IV lounge that can just give you an IV bag with some vitamins and maybe some meds.
It’s like $150-$200, which I know is still expensive, but you don’t need insurance and it’s a quick in-and-out.
When that dehydrated, injecting liquids is way more effective than drinking them.
Are IV lounges something anyone can just walk in and do?
Yeah, it’s actually kinda wild because the first time I went in, something about it felt illegal. But nope, they’re perfectly fine and a great way to treat dehydration, hangovers, migraines, general pain, nausea, etc. Anyone can walk in and use them.
They’ve personally saved me several times when my migraines have gotten to their 10/10 point because the meds hit so much more effectively through IV than orally.
This is the worst advice anyone has ever given.
I highly doubt he just felt a little parched and decided to go to the ER. I also wouldn’t suggest to others to diagnose themselves as dehydrated and go to an IV clinic (unless they perform medical check-ups from licensed physicians as well).
In an interview Monday with Business Insider, Adams said he went to the ER in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January after he became lightheaded while hiking on a work trip.
From his wiki he looks like a fit military figure who’s probably not had the many health complications (is also still in his 40’s). As a doctor himself and probably his colleagues around him (work trip), I imagine the recommendation is to get checked-up asap. It’s also kind of ironic you’re calling out the former Surgeon General and a licensed doctor while giving alternative medical advice lol.
It’s not even alternative medical advice though. You go to the ER for dehydration and they’re going to give you an IV of fluids and vitamins. I know because I’ve done it several times.
Whatever the Surgeon General’s issue was, I’m sure he knew what was best for him and of course go to the ER if you’re that bad.
But I’ve personally been in situations where an ER visit would have been warranted. I’m not talking just parched, it’s when I’ve been frequently vomiting for 18 hours every 20 minutes and severely dehydrated because of my migraines. But instead of needing the ER, it took 10 minutes to get an IV at an IV lounge that took care of it for far cheaper and quicker. And then I’m not taking up a bed from someone who could use it more.
There’s nothing wrong with getting IVs because the people administering them are trained nurses. It’s not “alternative medicine” because it’s literally what the ER gives you.
I’m living in the real world, most I’ve ever had to pay was parking and I guess a few bucks for meds. I remember how $100 for meds a fe years ago made me cringe.
But I also live in a first world country, with first world problems.
Two years ago my dad had a cardiac arrest.
Resuscitation, ambulance ride, four stents, nearly a week in a coma in intensive care, another week recovering. No charge at all. Due to Covid and them not really want everyone putting their germy hospital hands on the ticket machines, even the parking was free.
All I paid was a few quid for a bottle of water and some biscuits from the hospital shop.
Now there are issues with the NHS, in that anything non-urgent can take a very long time and might not get resolved at all, and it being chronically understaffed to the point of negligence (which is intentional sabotage by our government) but for emergencies, it’s amazing.
That sounds so… wonderful. The patient and family get to focus on health and feel like they belong to a society that values their wellbeing? 🤩
Well I wouldn’t go that far. I do live in the UK after all.
But it’s nice to not be bankrupt, so there’s that.
Never been to the US before I guess 🤷♂️ He got off pretty light at 5k.
Just don’t pay it. Nothing they can do about it.
Sending medical info to collections is a violation of HIPPA, just ask for the itemized list.
0 chance they’d give you any flak for anything under, say, a 250k heart surgery.
Hah! All of those foolish lawyers and politicians, their staff, all the lobbyists who wrote HIPAA (not HIPPA)…and not one thought “hey, you know, we should probably make sure that when people don’t pay their bills, there’s some recourse for the provider”. What a bunch of maroons.
You’re perfectly welcome to pay your shit if you want you dork.
