Yesterday the bill for my son’s recent emergency room visit came in the mail. I almost passed out when I opened it. We were probably in the treatment room for less than an hour, and the total bill was…drum roll please…
$1116.00
Wow. For two stitches. $476 was for emergency room services, and $640 was for the professional fee. Fortunately we have insurance and it’s been billed. Since our insurance is new this month, I don’t know the ins and outs of our plan yet. I do know we’re on the hook for a $250 co-pay, but whether we have to pay above and beyond the co-pay is still to be determined. Whatever do people without insurance do?
News of Note
Do you like ice cream? Tomorrow, May 22, you can get a free ice cream sundae at select Walmarts, while supplies last. Unfortunately for my local readers, our Walmarts aren’t among those participating, so we don’t get any free ice cream. But for the rest of you, it’s a great deal, if there’s a participating Walmart in your area!
The Roundup
Here are some interesting links from the week.
- Frugal Teen Buys House With 4-H Winnings – The Columbus Dispatch. If only I had been so frugal in my teens.
- Is Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball the Best Way to Pay Off Debt? – Cash Money Life
- Easy, Elegant, and Professional Cupcake Decorating – Frugal Upstate
- Furnishing Your New Place – Bargaineering
- How I Keep Our Laundry Frugal – Domestic Cents
Tomorrow is the day I pick up my Angel Food Ministries box, so be looking for an update on how I liked it in the next couple of weeks! Have a great weekend!
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My friends without insurance pay off bills a bit at a time every month until the balance is zero.
Thanks for the link Lynnae! Have a great weekend :)
That is just CRAZY..! The fees that are being charged anymore are out of control.
A few years ago my hubby was continually feeling dizzy and one afternoon finally broke down and went to the local immediate care. They told him they thought he was having a heart attack (after HEARING that, he WAS having a heart attack)…they called for an ambulance, took him to the hospital, ran all kinds of tests, said “no heart attack, don’t know what your problem was” and he went home. The bill, $10,000.
(And unfortunately we have high-ded insurance of $10,000. My agent said turn the bill in anyway and the insurance co renegotiated the bill down to $8700 for us. I can’t imagine what it would be today if he went through this.
Wonder why we are having a health care crisis in this country….geez…
About 3 weeks ago, my 5 year old son unlocked his bedroom window and fell 30 feet (3rd floor apartment) to the ground below. He ended up with only a broken femur. Because he fell so far, the ambulance took him to a landing pad, where he was loaded into a helicopter and flown 30 miles to a larger hospital. He was in surgery for 2 hours to get his leg put back together, and in the hospital for 4 days total.
I’m watching the bills hit my insurance online. It stands at $98,789.25 right now, and I’m fairly certain not all the bills have hit yet. We are extremely lucky our son is still alive, and also that my out of pocket is limited to $2000.
I just want to reply to Heidi, if you don’t mind.
Thank God your son is okay! My son was hit by a car about 15 years ago and also broke his femur bone–not to mention other more serious injuries. But it was the femur bone that had him in traction in the hospital for 42 days and in a body cast for another two months. He’s totally fine now (as far as a 23-year-old can be) but those were scary times. I’m glad we also had insurance. But I’m glad that times have changed and your little boy doesn’t have to spend most of the summer in the hospital!
Those without insurance go down and negotiate – and locally, our hospital cuts a big chunk of it off – sometimes half the bill if you can pay cash within 30 days for the balance – so it’s worth it to get a small loan from somewhere to do that, then make payments on the loan.
Or, they pay nothing. Our hospital is one of those that has to do so much ‘charity’ stuff every year….. which means insurance companies are getting billed extra along the way to make up for it.
Make sure you double check all the line items in your bill, and make sure you actually received all the services/items noted. Let both your insurance co and the hospital know if you didn’t.
I have been in a position to be self-pay for hospital and medical visits in the past. Where I go – there is an automatic 15% off for self-pay patients. That would make your $1116.00 bill $948.60. Then there is a program that provides additional pro-rated discounts for those who have an income up to 400% of the poverty level-for a family of five, the income can be up to $103,160 to receive a 10% discount. The discount for my family income (around $75k) was 30% last year. That would bring your now $948.60 bill down to $664.02. So… bottom line is that the prices are way over-inflated. Question is… why? Why couldn’t the hospital just charge $664.02 and the insurance pays their portion, you pay your portion – no discounts needed/no over-inflated prices.
If you had gone to the clinic I work for, the total bill would have only been around $300 for the suturing, supplies included. And you would have to pay probably a 20% coinsurance unless you have a deductible. We’ll have to talk! ;-)
People who can’t afford insurance can often apply for and get Medicaid. I work for a pediatrician and I’d say 60% or better of our patients are Medicaid patients. I might be wrong, but I’m sure it’s available to all children who wouldn’t have insurance otherwise.
Still, I’ve never been able to figure out the high cost of a visit to the emergency room. Frankly, if they compensated you for all the time you sat there waiting, they’d probably end up owing YOU money, LOL!
Hope your son is doing well!
wow, I can’t believe it costs so much! I’ve been to the emergency room tons of times. And never had to pay anything. I am in Australia though and have Medicare. I have always had someone take me there, too so I’ve never used an ambulance either, but WOW.
Don’t forget that if you have insurance and the hospital you went to was a preffered provider then the hospital can only charge what they agreed upon with the insurance company. With my husband’s recent bill that along knocked off $2,000 from his $10,000.
This is a prime example on why we need to crack down on illegal aliens, they know they can go to the hospital for routine care and get it without having to pay and the hospital can’t turn them away. We can’t track them down and we end up paying for it with inflated bills.
Tips:
1) As tough as it is to decipher, read through plan docs when changing insurance. That will tell you a lot.
2) Know your avaiable care providers and their hours. In a mountain-bike accident, I cut my knee. I thought it was nothing, and my friend drove me home. It didn’t stop bleeding, so he urged me to see the doc. We called my doc’s office, and they were open (on a Sunday!) for limited visits. I went there, signed in, and after a nurse noticed I was sittting in the waiting room with a lot of bleeding, she took me in immediately. I hadn’t read my insurance plan before, but while in the waiting room, I pulled out my insurance card and called the number on it. They gave approval over the phone for treatment. For the eight stitches, the cost would have been over 3k. My co-pay after all was said and done was $50. Part of that was dumb luck through going to my doc’s office rather than a hospital ER.
3) After knowing your primary’s hours, look at Urgent Care Clinics hours (helpful to know). Look at your insurance policy to see the coverage for these and how much you might save over going to the ER. (Certainly major emergencies require an ER, but things like stitches, etc. can be handled by urgent care clinics at much less cost).
In summary, understand your insurance plan and understand available providers.
I don’t have insurance so I don’t go to the Dr at all. That means no preventative care or check ups either which is a shame. I simply cannot afford it. The last time I went was nearly 2 years ago. One simple exam..one simple in office test and 2 blood tests at a lab. Nearly $1000. And that was with a discount from the lab the office sends their tests to. That lab offered a 70 % discount to patients with no insurance. I could afford a regular check up but what if something came back wrong? I could not afford treatment. Its sad.
We’re self-employed, and an emergency policy with a $10,000 deductible would cost us $20,000 a year. That’s just the plan, and it doesn’t cover doctor’s visits–or pregnancy. No one wants to cover pregnancy for those who are self-employed; I’ve looked.
Thankfully, our children have been able to be born at home, and we pay my midwife out of pocket for each one.
But, when my daughter broke her arm, it was $6,000 betweeen the three billing places (the emergency room, the hospital, and the specialist they sent us to, because the hospital would not put a cast on it, though they did reset both broken bones in her arm). The only discount they offered was 10% off if we paid in full in 30 days. In addition, both the hospital and the emergency room wanted a minimum of $100 each per month, or they would send us to collections. The specialist wanted $250 a WEEK for 3 months!
Being forced to buy insurance (by law) is not going to help us at all. We’ve been living from our pantry and garden for years now; we can’t afford food, let alone insurance.
If you have insurance and don’t have to pay both sides of it (because your emplyer pays the other half) consider yourself lucky; it is a great deal of money for those who are self-employed.