Woman Finds A Genius Way To Reduce ER Bills By Itemizing Them And People Are Saying That It Works
Having a medical emergency is hard enough as it is, and anyone would be scared in that position. However, most Americans have a lot more to worry about during a visit to the ER than many other people from developed countries. According to the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI), the cost of ER visits are on the rise. The organization has examined a decade’s worth of insurance claims for hospital emergency room bills, and determined that from 2008 to 2017 the prices have substantially increased. HCCI discovered that the average ER visit now costs $1,389 and has reached a 176% increase over the decade.
Recently, a woman shared an important tip that helped her reduce her ER bill
Image credits: the_heva
While those who have insurance are not always made to pay full price, the uninsured people suffer the most. This prompts people to look for a way to reduce their bills. After TikTok user shaunnaburns3 told people to ask hospitals for itemized bills once they are faced with a hefty charge for a trip to the ER, people decided to put that to the test. Luckily, for some people, this tip actually worked and helped save them hundreds of dollars.
This is the Tiktok I saw! I don’t really know if it works for other things but it doesn’t hurt to try! pic.twitter.com/LXXJm4jkYp
— ehvuh (@the_heva) December 29, 2019
Image credits: the_heva
People who asked for the itemized bill in hopes to get a reduced charge said it actually works
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Some Twitter users offered their own explanations on why it could work
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Others joined the conversation with additional tips
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Here’s what other users had to say
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America's healthcare system keeps on surpising me. When I think it can not get any more ridiculous, something like this turns up
Indeed, just how can possibly a bill go to 30k$ to 0$ !?
Load More Replies...
Not even third world countries do this to their citizens. I'm sorry for most of you, but you're treated worse than cattle. Healthcare and consumer protection is a sham in the US. Just work until you fall over and consume, and don't you dare become uppity. It's paradise for rich people and hell for everyone else. I already mentioned this on other similar posts, might seem like I hate the US, but I actually love it, that's why it's making me sick how it's descending into this rightwing Dystopia. There's responsible capitalism and then there's vulture capitalism, you're being slaughtered by the vultures.
Man, as a Canadian I find it absolute WILD that you get a BILL for visiting an ER.
It is wild but just as an anecdote, not all hospitals charge the uninsured for ER visits. Where I live there’s a group of hospitals that aren’t billing people unless it’s for something major.
Load More Replies...
This system sounds chaotic, ridiculous and unreliable for both the patients and health care providers. I don't know why Americans are so afraid of socialized health care. It is not a perfect solution but it means everyone gets medical care when they need it, not when they can afford it.
Not all Americans are afraid of one payer health care system, just some brainwashed population of USA who are fighting this against their benefit. Some of that population is mislead by notion of it being "cOmUNisT" others are afraid brown people will get help. If you are about to ask why are we, who wants one payer system akin to first world countries not doing anything, just look at US political news we are trying however even being in bigger majority number we are helpless.
Load More Replies...
I'm just too European to understand this insanity in a developed country.
The majority of woke Americans agree with you. Unfortunately, it looks like Russia hacked us into having to deal with an insane baboon flinging his s**t in the White House, and right-wing a******s in the Senate (one Turtlehead in particular) who block any progressive legislation that could actually remedy the situation. We hope to rid ourselves of their stain in November 2020. Keep your fingers crossed for us. (Plan B: I’m married to an Englishman who has kept his green card instead of taking the oath of US citizenship, which—-thankfully—-means we can easily cross the border to Canada if the baboon wins another term.)
Load More Replies...
Why people don't take them to the court when getting the itemized and lower bill, acussing them of fraud attempt??
I still don't even understand why the itemized bill would be lower in the first place. Is there a legal limit on what can be charged per item? How do they come up with the lump total in the first place, if not by adding up the items?
Load More Replies...
that's ridiculous, in my 30+ years most i had to pay in hospital was 4 euros for emergency dental treatment (which is standard payment in hospital if one arrives on own feet and not in ambulance), but everything else is covered, that what's social insurance is paid by employer for
How much do they charge for a trumpectomy? See you all up in Canada soon.
Canadian weather is still shittier than American politics. I could never do it.
Load More Replies...
I can't understand why americans don't protest and demand a proper healthcare system. Yes, it is payed for by taxes, but when you do get sick you know it won't ruin your life finacially. That's so comforting. Last year, I unfortunately got Psoriasis. Months of treatment in hospital (Sweden), special creams. In the US, I would have gone bankrupt. Most of that wouldn't be covered by insurance. I got the major part "for free".
It's called "electoral college" instead of counting vote-for-vote. We only have control through elections, and with electoral college instead of vote-for-vote, even that isn't possible. The rest, we have to live with.
Load More Replies... The US heathcare system does not cease to surprise. So does the lawmaking regarding it. Over here (Europe), izemized bills are mandatory – there is no way not to get one (in case you have private insurance and thereby get to see the bills at all). Moreover, any kind of medical service is taken from catalogues, which tell how much they costs. The only freedom hospitals have is to adfd factors for complexity and effort – which carefully will be scrutinized by the insurers. Sounds reasonable? Yes, and it is way more efficient, since all three involved parties (hospital, insurer, patient) knows what to calculate with.
It's funny. I only get itemized bills from my vet because I have to pay it on my own and I was astonished how much stuff is used and how much it costs. So wtf are they doing in the US human health care that the amounts are so wrong at the end? Do they just round or double everything? Don't they themselves have to know every small thing they did and used?
They pretty much just make it up as far as I'm aware ( :
Load More Replies...
Oh, but when Bernie Sanders wants to give everyone in the US universal FREE healthcare, his opponents call him a socialist. The same opponents that will happily support an impeached sham of a President just so their side continues to hold power, promising of a system of "trickle down economics" but instead the rich are getting taxed less than the middle class...
It all boils down to one thing: Out of control predatory greed.
It's so sad the USA is a third world health system. Why does the USA fight having free healthcare?
Not sure it works 100% of the time. Some hospitals will charge you and not care. We had our daughter 7 years ago and I got an itemized bill with no errors on it. They charge $18 per Tylenol that you could buy OTC. I complained and no one cared. They doctor "forgot" to perform a hearing test and so my daughter had to stay a day beyond the insured time period for birth. That extra day cost $1650. I complained to both the insurance company and hospital. No one cared. Our health care system is so f****d up that people call Uber and Lyft instead of an ambulance.
What happens is the hosptial enters what you had into a system, adds in some info and then a price pops out, it is many times not correct, which is why insurance companies "negotiate" bills down by huge numbers. What asking for itemized is, forces the hospital to look over every item by an accountant and then they legally have to ensure everything is alright or they can face legal consequences. So they will take off any errors. If you want to understand why this happens, is the current system that leads to the issues in the first place actually comes from govt regulatory compliance. Having worked in Health Care policy, about 40% of current health care costs are government compliance, the reason why most meds are so high is same reasons, the stupid system that spits out high bills too comes from bad govt regulatory policy. The problem is we have 7 different systems piled on top of each other. And most of these regs arent even safety, but rather bureaucratic in nature with no purpose
Im glad I live in the UK. I had a chat with someone from America and they believe we pay half of our wages to the NHS! The look on their face when I told them we pay around 25% in taxes and 4% of that goes to the NHS was priceless. The American Government 'Health Service' machine has really rolled out and bull-dozered the truth out of the way just for profits.
This just confirms how hard patients are taking it up the a*s by the hospitals, since they're allowed to charge whatever they feel like on your bill.
Poor US citizens victimized by their fraudulent health system and primarily by their insurance. Which, among other things, are trying to export this criminal system all over the world. We hope to be able to counteract them. In the meantime, I wish you knew that elsewhere in the civilized world things are different.
I am sorry for asking this, but what the hell with your healhcare system America!? Like 1 trip to the ER and you owe like 2k dollars?? 1 thing more messed up than this is your educational system. (Sorry for the typos, english is not my native language)
That is exactly what it is like here. It is ridiculous, but our corrupt government has lots of funding from the healthcare systems, to further their own agendas, so they don't care about little ole us.
Load More Replies...
I had to go to one of those emergency care clinics a few years back. I was told that as soon as I received my bill to send it to a particular address and my bill would go from 1k+ to $100. I was never sent a bill and they posted to a credit agency. As I tried to fight it and told the collections folks about the situation, they said nobody EVER does what I described. Been fighting this for almost 5 years now and when they call to threaten a lawsuit, I tell them to go right ahead, sue the hell out of me. Never happened yet. It is a ding on my credit but I'm trying to get that changed too. Bottom line, if I have to go to my grave with this on my credit report, so be it. They are not getting a dime from me. Yes, I have tried to pay the reduced $100 I was promised but they won't accept it.
paying... for... an emergency ambulance... I don't think any comment is needed. Cheers from EU.
Why the heck are you Americans paying for insurance if you then still have to pay thousands of dollars anyway out of pocket. What is even the point in paying for insurance.
In 2018 I had to have 2 ear tubes installed to drain the fluid. Done in the doctors office, 10 mins. My Bill $6,000! I was supposedly used an OR, had an nurse anesteologist, suitures, tubes, recovery room etc. When I got the bill I was well a bit heated and yep cussed some. They offered to drop the bill to 1K I told them to kiss my a*s, then they said well $200 bucks told them to sue me in court, I insisted they bring it to court and warned them you screw with my credit report and I am going to wind up owning GHS. When the doctor heard about it, I thought he was going to carve the ceo up... Last year when he did the procedure again him, me in his office and that was it....NO CHARGE. CHALLENGE THOSE BILLS FOLKS....
Just for one extensive eye exam that totalled $160, they billed me for it when I had health insurance WITH VISION COVERAGE TO BOOT. I went in there asking them why I was getting billed, they called their billing company and they said that they tried to enter it and it wasn't accepted because it was a late Friday or some b.s., so instead of trying again on Monday to submit it to my insurance, they sent it to me to pay. Can you imagine if an elderly person got that and just paid it, and how many times they do that and people don't question it? I have full insurance and they just didn't feel like submitting it twice, so they told me to pay it. F**k off you lazy knobs.
Wait... what? This article is about the ER. I don’t think people are going to the ER for eye exams. The eye doctor you went to was just individually dumb or lazy, but that’s not really the fault of the system in place.
Load More Replies...
Oh... this c**p is ridiculous! I had my gallbladder taken out and was charged three times $1,800 for someone to administer the drugs needed to knock me out... THREE TIMES charged. They also for some reason were "out of network" and charged all this insane stuff alongside their $1800 price tag... so I fought that sucker... because the hospital... the surgeon who did the surgery, everything... was in-network. I never had to pay a dime for that... especially as I had met my maximum out of pocket for the year. America's healthcare system is a joke and will try to charge insane prices... they gave me a fan because I was ungodly hot in my room... I spent 3 days in because I almost died from the surgery... the fan was $100... for a simple clip on 4 inch diameter fan...
Also, check out an app called GoodRX. I know several people who live in the US who told me that they’ve used it to get cheaper prescriptions.
Ugh this is all just ridiculous. Move to Canada and get free health care....(but get taxed out the wazoo).
I can live with the taxes if I don't have to worry about going bankrupt if I need my appendix out or a single parent ending up on the street because their kid had an accident. I do wish psychotherapy was financially accessible to more people.
Load More Replies...
It's kinda like the cable bill or phone bill, they are always trying to slip something by you, hoping you won't notice. I read my bills closely and call them out on it all the time.
Im just sitting here, newly uninsured after having my second baby. A mistake on my insurance companies behalf has delayed medical care for my NEWBORN, and my daughter, who at this very second has an ear infection, can't be seen by her general practitioner unless paid fully upfront. I havent been taking any of my daily medications because I can't afford $1200 up front to pick them up. I'm f*****g tired of this s**t. We work so hard, we raise our children to be upstanding individuals, we pay massive taxes and we go through life struggling, miserable, and in the end, depressed as f**k, bc of our healthcare system.
Whenever I feel my country (Malaysia) is f****d up, I'll read about healthcare in the US and be immediately grateful.
That's absolutely shocking that a first World country like America treats its citizens like this! Medical emergency, planned treatment etc should be free! Thank goodness for the NHS 😊
If healthcare was socialized, there's a ripple effect...taxes would go up, ok sure. Then hospitals could flood with patients, doctors wouldn't be able to keep up. Private hospitals may not be able to afford the doctors that have inflated salaries, student doctors could loose incentive to go to school for like 10 years to be doctors, schools could have difficulty recruiting doctor students, research institutions could lose funding and incentive to develop novel medicines and practices. The rest of the world benefits from medicines and practices that the US developed, doctors from all over the world come to the US for education and then return to their homeland to practice. Yes, these are extremes but possible consequences. The Trump administration signed an EO to make hospital bills more transparent, which would have a substantial affect. Rule of thumb: never exchange $ for goods/service without knowing exactly what you're getting out of it.
Guess sometimes we don't realize how good we have it here in the UK. Bills for a hospital visit? What's that all about lol.
RE: High hospital charges: After I was first diagnosed as diabetic, and before I decided on who and how I should treat this illness, the first doctor I was seeing talked me into an A1C test. He collected a little blood, and sent it to the hospital he was working with. They sent him the results, and I got a bill for $381.00. Blew me away, I knew you could get a DIY A1C test for $35.00, so I called the hospital for an itemized bill that would show why that bill was so high; anything that would show their cost even approached what they charged, and I promised I would pay it. Minus that, I said I thot $50.00 sounded right. First came the argument "Sir, we are talking about your health, here!" No, I said, we are talking about my money here. "But sir, we needed to know how high your blood sugar had been!" And I come back with I know how high my blood sugar was. It was danged high, that's why I was diagnosed as a diabetic. I sent them $50.00, and that was that.
My father was billed for everything the insurance company had disallowed. He contacted his insurance and that's what they told him. So they had him call the doctor and the insurance rep stayed on the phone but didn't make her presence known. The doctors office blamed 3rd party billed and took most of it off
What are you on about? I asked for an itemized bill and they told me they don't provide one and that it was a moot point seeing the bill was always zero. Don't you have free health care as standard??? You must! You keep telling me It's the greatest country in the world ..... ever, in the history of all countries since the dawn of time! Strange!!!!!
I got a call she said she was from some hospital, and said I owed a back bill I do remember going to the hospital but never getting a bill , so I assumed my husband either did a payment plan and forgot or he took the bill and forgot to pay , so I asked if she could send me an itemized bill and once I get that I would gladly pay , I never got a itemize bill and chalked it to a scam or i really didn’t own anything .
I have lovely insurance, I could just do without the paperwork. I get a statement *every month* for IV therapy that ended in 2015. For $0.00. That's an awful lot of paper for zero returns. Yes, I've called. Multiple times.
You still have the same minimum deductible on your insurance so does it matter how they apply the money? You pay the same before insurance picks it up.
Last spring I badly broke my arm. The ER in question had once charged my mom fo ra paper cup ($3 for a dixie cup!) so she could swallow a pill. So when they handed me the paper cup of water, I said, "If this shows up for more than a half a penny for the cost of tap water in a dixie cup, your a*s is getting sued". Strangely, my bill was remarkably low and extremely itemized, and nobody seemed ot charge for the fact I existed. RESIST PERSIST INSIST... or the profiteering SOBs never desist!
I thought it was a standar, here in México if you go to a private hospital, you always get an itemized bill, so the can't scam the insurace company.
I thought it was a standar, here un México if you go to a private hospital they always give you a itemized bill, so they can't make a fraud yo the insurance company.
This only works in states that will give you the bill. In Illinois they aren't legally obliged to list charges so you can take that request for an itemized bill and shove it up your
Well has anyone here written your congress reps? That's what they're there for. I'm doing it today but it is state by state so you all need to do it as well. Let's fix this!
They only care when it affects them. They get good healthcare, so it doesn't matter to them. They get Spam/robocalls, a bill gets signed into law in a year.....
Load More Replies...
America's healthcare system keeps on surpising me. When I think it can not get any more ridiculous, something like this turns up
Indeed, just how can possibly a bill go to 30k$ to 0$ !?
Load More Replies... Not even third world countries do this to their citizens. I'm sorry for most of you, but you're treated worse than cattle. Healthcare and consumer protection is a sham in the US. Just work until you fall over and consume, and don't you dare become uppity. It's paradise for rich people and hell for everyone else. I already mentioned this on other similar posts, might seem like I hate the US, but I actually love it, that's why it's making me sick how it's descending into this rightwing Dystopia. There's responsible capitalism and then there's vulture capitalism, you're being slaughtered by the vultures.
Man, as a Canadian I find it absolute WILD that you get a BILL for visiting an ER.
It is wild but just as an anecdote, not all hospitals charge the uninsured for ER visits. Where I live there’s a group of hospitals that aren’t billing people unless it’s for something major.
Load More Replies... This system sounds chaotic, ridiculous and unreliable for both the patients and health care providers. I don't know why Americans are so afraid of socialized health care. It is not a perfect solution but it means everyone gets medical care when they need it, not when they can afford it.
Not all Americans are afraid of one payer health care system, just some brainwashed population of USA who are fighting this against their benefit. Some of that population is mislead by notion of it being "cOmUNisT" others are afraid brown people will get help. If you are about to ask why are we, who wants one payer system akin to first world countries not doing anything, just look at US political news we are trying however even being in bigger majority number we are helpless.
Load More Replies... I'm just too European to understand this insanity in a developed country.
The majority of woke Americans agree with you. Unfortunately, it looks like Russia hacked us into having to deal with an insane baboon flinging his s**t in the White House, and right-wing a******s in the Senate (one Turtlehead in particular) who block any progressive legislation that could actually remedy the situation. We hope to rid ourselves of their stain in November 2020. Keep your fingers crossed for us. (Plan B: I’m married to an Englishman who has kept his green card instead of taking the oath of US citizenship, which—-thankfully—-means we can easily cross the border to Canada if the baboon wins another term.)
Load More Replies... Why people don't take them to the court when getting the itemized and lower bill, acussing them of fraud attempt??
I still don't even understand why the itemized bill would be lower in the first place. Is there a legal limit on what can be charged per item? How do they come up with the lump total in the first place, if not by adding up the items?
Load More Replies... that's ridiculous, in my 30+ years most i had to pay in hospital was 4 euros for emergency dental treatment (which is standard payment in hospital if one arrives on own feet and not in ambulance), but everything else is covered, that what's social insurance is paid by employer for
How much do they charge for a trumpectomy? See you all up in Canada soon.
Canadian weather is still shittier than American politics. I could never do it.
Load More Replies... I can't understand why americans don't protest and demand a proper healthcare system. Yes, it is payed for by taxes, but when you do get sick you know it won't ruin your life finacially. That's so comforting. Last year, I unfortunately got Psoriasis. Months of treatment in hospital (Sweden), special creams. In the US, I would have gone bankrupt. Most of that wouldn't be covered by insurance. I got the major part "for free".
It's called "electoral college" instead of counting vote-for-vote. We only have control through elections, and with electoral college instead of vote-for-vote, even that isn't possible. The rest, we have to live with.
Load More Replies... The US heathcare system does not cease to surprise. So does the lawmaking regarding it. Over here (Europe), izemized bills are mandatory – there is no way not to get one (in case you have private insurance and thereby get to see the bills at all). Moreover, any kind of medical service is taken from catalogues, which tell how much they costs. The only freedom hospitals have is to adfd factors for complexity and effort – which carefully will be scrutinized by the insurers. Sounds reasonable? Yes, and it is way more efficient, since all three involved parties (hospital, insurer, patient) knows what to calculate with.
It's funny. I only get itemized bills from my vet because I have to pay it on my own and I was astonished how much stuff is used and how much it costs. So wtf are they doing in the US human health care that the amounts are so wrong at the end? Do they just round or double everything? Don't they themselves have to know every small thing they did and used?
They pretty much just make it up as far as I'm aware ( :
Load More Replies... Oh, but when Bernie Sanders wants to give everyone in the US universal FREE healthcare, his opponents call him a socialist. The same opponents that will happily support an impeached sham of a President just so their side continues to hold power, promising of a system of "trickle down economics" but instead the rich are getting taxed less than the middle class...
It all boils down to one thing: Out of control predatory greed.
It's so sad the USA is a third world health system. Why does the USA fight having free healthcare?
Not sure it works 100% of the time. Some hospitals will charge you and not care. We had our daughter 7 years ago and I got an itemized bill with no errors on it. They charge $18 per Tylenol that you could buy OTC. I complained and no one cared. They doctor "forgot" to perform a hearing test and so my daughter had to stay a day beyond the insured time period for birth. That extra day cost $1650. I complained to both the insurance company and hospital. No one cared. Our health care system is so f****d up that people call Uber and Lyft instead of an ambulance.
What happens is the hosptial enters what you had into a system, adds in some info and then a price pops out, it is many times not correct, which is why insurance companies "negotiate" bills down by huge numbers. What asking for itemized is, forces the hospital to look over every item by an accountant and then they legally have to ensure everything is alright or they can face legal consequences. So they will take off any errors. If you want to understand why this happens, is the current system that leads to the issues in the first place actually comes from govt regulatory compliance. Having worked in Health Care policy, about 40% of current health care costs are government compliance, the reason why most meds are so high is same reasons, the stupid system that spits out high bills too comes from bad govt regulatory policy. The problem is we have 7 different systems piled on top of each other. And most of these regs arent even safety, but rather bureaucratic in nature with no purpose
Im glad I live in the UK. I had a chat with someone from America and they believe we pay half of our wages to the NHS! The look on their face when I told them we pay around 25% in taxes and 4% of that goes to the NHS was priceless. The American Government 'Health Service' machine has really rolled out and bull-dozered the truth out of the way just for profits.
This just confirms how hard patients are taking it up the a*s by the hospitals, since they're allowed to charge whatever they feel like on your bill.
Poor US citizens victimized by their fraudulent health system and primarily by their insurance. Which, among other things, are trying to export this criminal system all over the world. We hope to be able to counteract them. In the meantime, I wish you knew that elsewhere in the civilized world things are different.
I am sorry for asking this, but what the hell with your healhcare system America!? Like 1 trip to the ER and you owe like 2k dollars?? 1 thing more messed up than this is your educational system. (Sorry for the typos, english is not my native language)
That is exactly what it is like here. It is ridiculous, but our corrupt government has lots of funding from the healthcare systems, to further their own agendas, so they don't care about little ole us.
Load More Replies... I had to go to one of those emergency care clinics a few years back. I was told that as soon as I received my bill to send it to a particular address and my bill would go from 1k+ to $100. I was never sent a bill and they posted to a credit agency. As I tried to fight it and told the collections folks about the situation, they said nobody EVER does what I described. Been fighting this for almost 5 years now and when they call to threaten a lawsuit, I tell them to go right ahead, sue the hell out of me. Never happened yet. It is a ding on my credit but I'm trying to get that changed too. Bottom line, if I have to go to my grave with this on my credit report, so be it. They are not getting a dime from me. Yes, I have tried to pay the reduced $100 I was promised but they won't accept it.
paying... for... an emergency ambulance... I don't think any comment is needed. Cheers from EU.
Why the heck are you Americans paying for insurance if you then still have to pay thousands of dollars anyway out of pocket. What is even the point in paying for insurance.
In 2018 I had to have 2 ear tubes installed to drain the fluid. Done in the doctors office, 10 mins. My Bill $6,000! I was supposedly used an OR, had an nurse anesteologist, suitures, tubes, recovery room etc. When I got the bill I was well a bit heated and yep cussed some. They offered to drop the bill to 1K I told them to kiss my a*s, then they said well $200 bucks told them to sue me in court, I insisted they bring it to court and warned them you screw with my credit report and I am going to wind up owning GHS. When the doctor heard about it, I thought he was going to carve the ceo up... Last year when he did the procedure again him, me in his office and that was it....NO CHARGE. CHALLENGE THOSE BILLS FOLKS....
Just for one extensive eye exam that totalled $160, they billed me for it when I had health insurance WITH VISION COVERAGE TO BOOT. I went in there asking them why I was getting billed, they called their billing company and they said that they tried to enter it and it wasn't accepted because it was a late Friday or some b.s., so instead of trying again on Monday to submit it to my insurance, they sent it to me to pay. Can you imagine if an elderly person got that and just paid it, and how many times they do that and people don't question it? I have full insurance and they just didn't feel like submitting it twice, so they told me to pay it. F**k off you lazy knobs.
Wait... what? This article is about the ER. I don’t think people are going to the ER for eye exams. The eye doctor you went to was just individually dumb or lazy, but that’s not really the fault of the system in place.
Load More Replies... Oh... this c**p is ridiculous! I had my gallbladder taken out and was charged three times $1,800 for someone to administer the drugs needed to knock me out... THREE TIMES charged. They also for some reason were "out of network" and charged all this insane stuff alongside their $1800 price tag... so I fought that sucker... because the hospital... the surgeon who did the surgery, everything... was in-network. I never had to pay a dime for that... especially as I had met my maximum out of pocket for the year. America's healthcare system is a joke and will try to charge insane prices... they gave me a fan because I was ungodly hot in my room... I spent 3 days in because I almost died from the surgery... the fan was $100... for a simple clip on 4 inch diameter fan...
Also, check out an app called GoodRX. I know several people who live in the US who told me that they’ve used it to get cheaper prescriptions.
Ugh this is all just ridiculous. Move to Canada and get free health care....(but get taxed out the wazoo).
I can live with the taxes if I don't have to worry about going bankrupt if I need my appendix out or a single parent ending up on the street because their kid had an accident. I do wish psychotherapy was financially accessible to more people.
Load More Replies... It's kinda like the cable bill or phone bill, they are always trying to slip something by you, hoping you won't notice. I read my bills closely and call them out on it all the time.
Im just sitting here, newly uninsured after having my second baby. A mistake on my insurance companies behalf has delayed medical care for my NEWBORN, and my daughter, who at this very second has an ear infection, can't be seen by her general practitioner unless paid fully upfront. I havent been taking any of my daily medications because I can't afford $1200 up front to pick them up. I'm f*****g tired of this s**t. We work so hard, we raise our children to be upstanding individuals, we pay massive taxes and we go through life struggling, miserable, and in the end, depressed as f**k, bc of our healthcare system.
Whenever I feel my country (Malaysia) is f****d up, I'll read about healthcare in the US and be immediately grateful.
That's absolutely shocking that a first World country like America treats its citizens like this! Medical emergency, planned treatment etc should be free! Thank goodness for the NHS 😊
If healthcare was socialized, there's a ripple effect...taxes would go up, ok sure. Then hospitals could flood with patients, doctors wouldn't be able to keep up. Private hospitals may not be able to afford the doctors that have inflated salaries, student doctors could loose incentive to go to school for like 10 years to be doctors, schools could have difficulty recruiting doctor students, research institutions could lose funding and incentive to develop novel medicines and practices. The rest of the world benefits from medicines and practices that the US developed, doctors from all over the world come to the US for education and then return to their homeland to practice. Yes, these are extremes but possible consequences. The Trump administration signed an EO to make hospital bills more transparent, which would have a substantial affect. Rule of thumb: never exchange $ for goods/service without knowing exactly what you're getting out of it.
Guess sometimes we don't realize how good we have it here in the UK. Bills for a hospital visit? What's that all about lol.
RE: High hospital charges: After I was first diagnosed as diabetic, and before I decided on who and how I should treat this illness, the first doctor I was seeing talked me into an A1C test. He collected a little blood, and sent it to the hospital he was working with. They sent him the results, and I got a bill for $381.00. Blew me away, I knew you could get a DIY A1C test for $35.00, so I called the hospital for an itemized bill that would show why that bill was so high; anything that would show their cost even approached what they charged, and I promised I would pay it. Minus that, I said I thot $50.00 sounded right. First came the argument "Sir, we are talking about your health, here!" No, I said, we are talking about my money here. "But sir, we needed to know how high your blood sugar had been!" And I come back with I know how high my blood sugar was. It was danged high, that's why I was diagnosed as a diabetic. I sent them $50.00, and that was that.
My father was billed for everything the insurance company had disallowed. He contacted his insurance and that's what they told him. So they had him call the doctor and the insurance rep stayed on the phone but didn't make her presence known. The doctors office blamed 3rd party billed and took most of it off
What are you on about? I asked for an itemized bill and they told me they don't provide one and that it was a moot point seeing the bill was always zero. Don't you have free health care as standard??? You must! You keep telling me It's the greatest country in the world ..... ever, in the history of all countries since the dawn of time! Strange!!!!!
I got a call she said she was from some hospital, and said I owed a back bill I do remember going to the hospital but never getting a bill , so I assumed my husband either did a payment plan and forgot or he took the bill and forgot to pay , so I asked if she could send me an itemized bill and once I get that I would gladly pay , I never got a itemize bill and chalked it to a scam or i really didn’t own anything .
I have lovely insurance, I could just do without the paperwork. I get a statement *every month* for IV therapy that ended in 2015. For $0.00. That's an awful lot of paper for zero returns. Yes, I've called. Multiple times.
You still have the same minimum deductible on your insurance so does it matter how they apply the money? You pay the same before insurance picks it up.
Last spring I badly broke my arm. The ER in question had once charged my mom fo ra paper cup ($3 for a dixie cup!) so she could swallow a pill. So when they handed me the paper cup of water, I said, "If this shows up for more than a half a penny for the cost of tap water in a dixie cup, your a*s is getting sued". Strangely, my bill was remarkably low and extremely itemized, and nobody seemed ot charge for the fact I existed. RESIST PERSIST INSIST... or the profiteering SOBs never desist!
I thought it was a standar, here in México if you go to a private hospital, you always get an itemized bill, so the can't scam the insurace company.
I thought it was a standar, here un México if you go to a private hospital they always give you a itemized bill, so they can't make a fraud yo the insurance company.
This only works in states that will give you the bill. In Illinois they aren't legally obliged to list charges so you can take that request for an itemized bill and shove it up your
Well has anyone here written your congress reps? That's what they're there for. I'm doing it today but it is state by state so you all need to do it as well. Let's fix this!
They only care when it affects them. They get good healthcare, so it doesn't matter to them. They get Spam/robocalls, a bill gets signed into law in a year.....
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