Voo-Doo Doctor
Remember Toddler K’s little surgery last October? I do and not just because of the ordeal at the time. Now, the bills are arriving. The first hospital billed us for $2,635. When we were transferred to the second hospital, the 7 mile ambulance ride costed us an additional $673. The bill from the second hospital: $7,865. Wait, there’s more. My wife’s surgery right before Christmas (you know, the one that got me into trouble) rang up another $3,723. That’s a total of $14,896! Luckily, our HMO will pay for most of it. We’ll probably end up paying anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. That’s much better than the full amount, but it’s still a lot of money.
You know what else bothers me? The voo-doo used to create the bill. How in the world did they come up with the bill? For instance, hospital #2 billed us $3,246 for the room, $813.87 for supplies, and $375.31 for pharmacy. Did we really use 813 dollars and 87 cents worth of supplies? Maybe we only used $45.02 in supplies. How the heck would I know. There’s no list of supplies and drugs used. Even if they provided me with an itemized list, I don’t think I would be able to understand it. And really, if they are going to charge us $3,246 for the room, shouldn’t the drugs and supplies be included. Coffee and massages would have been nice too.
Then there’s hospital #1. They charged us $1,454 for emergency services and another $317 for professional emergency fee. What’s the difference? Is the fee a mandatory 22% tip for good service? The hospital also charged us $80 for pharmacy and another $39 for drugs requiring detail coding. Shouldn’t all drugs (especially in the emergency room) require detail coding? Doctor: “Nurse, give the patient a red pill and 20cc of the green liquid, STAT!“
Toddler K still has a nasty scar underneath her chin, but she’s doing much better…except for her crankiness when she wants to be held…and she likes to be held a lot.
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Our healthcare system is criminal IMO. I completely feel your wallet’s pain. :(
OUCH! Up here it is govt. run. We complain but sometimes it is okay. Like when bills that size arrive in the mail. Criminal for sure!
Keep smilin!
Wah… jaws dropped.
What a cute picture! Is that a Beavers outfit? Shame, shame.
Thankfully I don’t have much experience with hospital bills, with the exception of the births, obviously. But it all sounds hokey to me. They can charge anything because who really would know?
Oh. my. sweet. lord.
That’s insanity! Almost $700 for a brief ambulance ride? Wow.
I remember seeing something on TV awhile back about people you can hire to go through the hospital bill and explain all the codes to you, so you know exactly why you were billed. I think it should be mandatory that all that stuff is spelled-out in plain English!
I feel your pain, Daddy, I truly do. I do know you can request itemized billing, but beware that they don’t “charge” you for that too. Make sure you know how many pills, band-aids, boxes of tissue are included on the bill. Don’t know how much you can contest, but it’s worth the fight!
Holy cow. I mean, wow.
There really does seem to be a lot of mystery regarding hospital and doctor fees. There’s no way of telling if you’re being over-charged or taken advantage of, because you don’t really know exactly what it is their charging you for and what the going price is anyway. It isn’t like you can really comparison shop for the best value or anything. There’s not a posting of prices or description of services.
From Julia’s recent ER visit, we were surprised to discover that Tylenol costs about four times as much at the hospital than it does at the pharmacy.
Ridiculous!
But, I’m glad Toddler K is alright and doing well. That’s worth $15,000.
Hospital bills are criminal. Roo just had to go to the ER for a CT scan. I am not looking forward to that bill. Toddler K is precious!
I was told by my medical facility that my delivery/hospitalization costs will be covered by insurance. Guess I am lucky.
I’m awed by the amounts you’ve mentioned.
Yeowzah! Hospital bills hit you right in the gut and in the wallet. Our child is the only one who has health insurance in our household-and that’s a good thing as far as our finances are concerned. A trip to the doctor’s office just to check TinkyBumBum Baby’s weight cost us $400.00…and she was only seen by a nurse that day.
I feel your pain…OUCH!
Oh, and HMO is the devil’s name.
Holly!… Makes me so greatful I live in Canada… I now really appreciate our free (mostly) healthcare…
Hooray for Canada! I can only imagine how much my little guy’s surgery would have been had I lived in the US. He was in hospital for a week, plus tests, plus the operation. That would have been hefty. Glad you have that HMO.