Anyone else think it's ridiculous how much doctors and hospitals charge?

Yes, the charges are ridiculous. For one hospital stay, my mother was charged $50 for a box of kleenex. It’s ridiculous.

Completely out of control. It drives me insane that patients get billed for $300 sometimes because a random resident came to see them (and the pt was sleeping) and managed (they do after all have so much schooling) to write a note in their chart about stepping into the room.

If you actually have an itemized bill, and get charged insane amounts for things like @hawaii_jake mentioned, and you sit down with the billing department and call bullshit on them, you can have some things reduced.

I think I’m the most furious about the ambulance charge. They did absolutely nothing that is worth $6,000. I’m considering calling them and telling them to cut it in half since they were so late.

I’m also going to ask what the pharmacy charge is. God help them if that’s because they brought my daughter a juice box.

My wife’s bills for the past year came to over 2.5 million dollars so yes they do over charge. When my little girl was born I looked at the bill and they had charged me a circumcision. I looked at that and told the hospital they had cut too much off of my daughter.

yes and that is why i think that if a cure for cancer or any other serious illness that kills millions a year is ever found, we will never ever know about it.

@JustmeAman OMG, are you kidding? They actually billed for circumcision on a female? LMFAO

Yes they actually did and then I asked for an itemized bill and found over $6000 of bogus charges.

That is not at all right. I think they get away with it as the insurance often picks up the costs. Drugs are very overpriced in the USA and they are pushed to the general public in every commercial break on television. Your health system is crazy. It puts money first and people a very poor second.

I am so pissed off right now that I’m shaking, and I swear I just saw smoke coming out of my ears.

Too bad the health care reform hasn’t kicked in yet. Then you’d have had insurance and wouldn’t have needed to be so upset. The insurance company would take care of it.

Insurers pay about 60% of what private pay people pay. They’ve negotiated that because they have a lot of patients for the hospital. You can talk to the billing office and probably negotiate some kind of discount—maybe even a significant one. Do some research first to see what is possible.

Also, try to find some insurance you can afford.

And another thing—what happened to your girl that required this unnecessary expense? I’m sorry it happened and I hope she’s better now.

It sucks…

A third of the people that walk in the door needing help cant pay for the help they need.

Someone has to pay for it

@WillWorkForChocolate I got charged at the emergency room for a ultrasound because they said it wasn’t pregnancy related so my Medicaid didn’t cover it… Explain that to me?? They were uh.. CHECKING MY BABY… Retards.. I would definitely recommend going to the hospital and talking to someone in accounting about the ambulance ride. A lot of the times they will change it, reduce the cost, or even not charge you at all.

It’s the plumbers, electricians and mechanics that irk me when they charge as much as a Doctor – who studied for 10 years and is busy saving lives.

Yes, it is ridiculous.

Well, maybe this is based on the fact that where I live healthcare is free. but im of the school of thought that doctors are not paid enough, neither are nurses.

It sucks to hear of your large bill, but if you lived in a place with free health care you would probably think differently. i see soccer players earning 30 million a year, while doctors are on about 250.000 a year, and think to me self how little they are paid considering what they do.

Look at how much the sports players get paid.

They are con artists and I despise the way they take advantage of people! A lot of doctors will stop at nothing to cheat you and fuck you with no grease. I remember going to a doctor who lied to me and said that they took my insurance coverage. They even took me aside and told me that from this day on I would not have to pay ANYTHING out of pocket except co-pay. Great. After 3 months of expensive tests I was given the green light and scheduled for the procedure but I was told that before they could begin the procedure, I had to give them $3000!! When I reminded them of our previous conversations about out-of-pocket expenses and how they said I would not have any from that day on, the billing nurse said “well yes you didn’t have to pay anything until now”. When I asked why they didn’t warn me then about what I would have to pay they just looked at me. I already know why tho. If they had told me the truth, I would have gone somewhere else and not let them even start treating me. This wasn’t an emergency procedure either. It was elective, so they knew I could go anywhere. They are worse than dogs.

BTW, @WillWorkForChocolate , how is she doing?

@wundayatta This is what happened 2 weeks ago today. http://www.fluther.com/99861/could-i-please-request-prayer-and-good-thoughts-for-my-injured/

@JilltheTooth She’s doing okay. She has headaches and sudden mood swings, and it’s hard to keep her as still as I’d like since she’s an active 4 year old. She desperately misses her gymnastics classes and she’s upset that we had to miss the state fair this year. I plan on trying to make up for that a little by taking both my girls to Six Flags- “Holiday in the Park” this winter. I’m anxious for her follow-up appt and repeat CT to see if the fracture is beginning to heal yet and to make sure the bleed stopped. If nothing has changed, or the bones shifted, or it’s still bleeding she’ll probably have to have surgery. I don’t even want to think about how much that would cost. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so glad she’s okay and that we opted for a CT that ended up showing us the large fracture and bleed, but OMG the hospital is like a nasty fucking vampire.

Here’s the problem I have. Not only are the costs exorbinant but they are differential dependent on who insures you and whether you have insurance at all. Employees of one place appear to be billed and covered at different rates than someone working at another place. And yes it’s ridiculous. I was in the hospital just a while back but knew enough to refuse any generic med that I had at home because my insurance might not cover it. But I couldn’t exactly figure out how to give myself a spinal tap at home…so I accepted the pain block for that and the procedure. Laugh out loud. They get you because you need the treatment and really don’t feel like you have any other options. And most people know if you need quick treatment you go in the ambulance. Those folks get triaged first even if they do then get pushed into the hallway on a gurney to wait.
NYS presumably has some of the best medical care in the US…but even we don’t rank up their compared to the rest of the world. Our costs here are runaway with inflation. And the HMO’s and malpractice insurers are making it more and more difficult for good doctors and facilities to function.
By the way, I hope your daughter is doing okay!

It disgusting , really. They will charge $100. for a tylenol, I swear.

@Frenchfry I know right? I could buy a years worth of Tylenol for less than what they’d charge for one dose!!

@WillWorkForChocolate I guess they have to add in the labor of putting it in a cup and handing it to you.

But if you brought a bottle of Tylenol to the hospital?? THEN what would they do?? Burn it?

@Frenchfry You are in Top Form tonight! LOLOL

Seriously , though. I haven’t been to the hosp but when I do have to go I need a list of all the things they charge $10—$100 each for like Kleenex, Tylenol…..and ,as an experiment in Human Decency and Ethics ,I’ll attempt to bring my own. I bet they’ll take them away fwom me.

@Aster I bet they do too, the greedy bastards. There should be a law. I live two blocks from the hospital one time. I had emergency and it cost me $5,000 to transported two blocks.

Well, if you do not like paying for it, don’t buy it.
But lets face it. You want it, and you can not refuse to buy.
But also consider-
If and when food becomes stupidly expensive because of high demand, you will figure out a way to pay for it, while you bitch about farmers and grocers.
And when gas gets to $10 a gallon, you will struggle to pay for it, while bitching at oil companies.
When fresh water becomes scarce, you will struggle to pay for it, and curse the Great Lakes states.
Etc.
So why do think that you should not struggle to pay for medical treatment?
One last thing- The reason you pay $100 for a Tylenol is because you are paying for all the people who refuse to or cannot pay at all. They are using you as a mule while they get a freebie.

@Frenchfry ”..........it cost me $5,000 to transported two blocks.” Whaaaat?? Was the gasoline expensive then ? Or did they have you hooked up to IV’s. I can’t even watch tv; your answers are way too fascinating. lol OK: now we need to refuse all ambulance rides. Say a quick prayer, gut it up and drive ourselves.

@josie “If you don’t like it, don’t buy it”??? I really didn’t have a choice when it came to my daughter’s well being. They know people somtimes don’t have a choice, and they take advantage of it.

I won’t even get started on why I have to pay for shit that other people get for free…

And I shouldn’t have to struggle to pay $6,000 for an ambulance because that ambulance didn’t do a damn thing that I couldn’t have done myself. AND they were extremely late. I could have driven my daughter to the other hospital and she could have started receiving treatment almost an hour earlier than what she did because the ambulance took their freakin time.

@WillWorkForChocolate Then why didn’t you drive her?

I wonder what a cold, rotten “meal” costs? hmmmm —note to self: have friends/s’o bring all meals—

@Aster Just to have a ambulance dispatched drive out the door. It’s $1000.00 plus $500 for each mile. Plus what ever they did. I may have rounded up a bit but it was $4,000 to $5,000 dollars. Love you note to self . You crack me up.

@josie Bitching about something makes me feels better at the injustices of the world. If no body bitches and shows there unhappiness nothing will be done about it. @WillWorkForChocolate They do take advantage of the situations your right.

$500 per mile? call a limo. Or have sometime pull you in one of those garbage cans with wheels.
I think I’d choose the limo now that I ponder it a little.
BTW; if someone offers me a Kleenex I will scream, “are you kidding me? You think I’m made of money or somethin?”

@josie We tried to, but the doctor at the first hospital stopped us and said “No, she needs to go by ambulance.”

@Frenchfry Great point. So what are you doing about it besides bitching?
Because anybody can bitch. Bitching does nothing.
It takes something more substantial to accomplish something.

@willworkfor chocolate ”“No, she needs to go by ambulance.” Thats because he loves you so much. actually, it has to do with fear of litigation. How heart-warming.

I just had a money making idea: tip the nurses with a bottle of Tylenol or Kleenex. Or , you could pay the bill with a case of 100 bottles. Just send them in the mail.
I remember the police dept called me to send them fifty bucks so they could give a teddybear to little kids involved in a wreck. I said that I would personally bring in two new teddybears instead and he hung up. I took that as a “no.”

@josie “Well, aren’t you just a ray of fucking sunshine?” LOL, one of my fave quotes, sorry. Look, I’m an emotional gal, I need sympathy here so I’ll feel better!

@josie I vote. That is how I change things, bitch to my congressman.

<hugs @WillWorkForChocolate and pats back.>

@WillWorkForChocolate Hang in there . We have all been down that road of medical bills horror stories. Hug from me as well. You know @WillWorkForChocolate go to the billing department and apply for it to be reduced. Some qualify for it. You might.

@Aster LMAO!!! Let’s see, I’ll call the hospital and ask how much their “pharmacy” charge is for 1 dose of tylenol. Then I’ll take the bill and work out how many bottles of tylenol I need to purchase. We’ll just assume that they charge $100 per “dose” (2 tylenol, right?). Geez, I might have to buy about 80 bottles to cover the cost, and I can get a bottle of tylenol from Walmart for about $4, so that would be $320 to cover a $10,000 hospital bill!!

@Frenchfry Thanks for the hugs, they’re always appreciated! And I do plan to call the billing department and tell them I’m private pay so would they be willing to help me out? If not, as long as I pay them anywhere from $15 to $20 a month, they can’t do anything to me.

@WillWorkForChocolate Great! Pay them the $15. Many years ago it was $5 a month.

@Aster I used to work for a hospital in the dietary department for five years. LOL I could actually find out for you how much lol.

Seriously, I believe the right to complain would only be granted if I had already worked for the umpty odd years it takes to arrive at the professional level.

If I have a billing issue, I discuss it directly with the hospital, and deal with it directly.

If there is evidence of wide-spread fraud, that would have to be reported to the authorities.

@YARNLADY “Evidence of wide-spread fraud”??? Everyone in this country knows that hospitals charge too much. Doctors will even warn their patients to not go to the ER unless they truly, truly have to, because of the fees. But it’s not something the authorities are going to do something about, because they actually have insurance and don’t have to worry about paying $6,000 for an ambulance ride.

It’s ridiculous, yes. But not surprising; hospitals have a lot of patients who don’t pay their bills, and the bean-counters want to keep the books in the black.

Something similar happened to us. My sister wrenched her knee in such a fashion as to require an MRI, for which we were over-charged. So, Dad decided that he was going to go the route of the minimum payment out of spite. There is some joy in the knowledge that it cost them more to process each payment than the payment was worth.

@WillWorkForChocolate Evidence is information that will hold up in court. Everyone knows is not valid in court. When there is legal evidence, lawyers are glad to help you.

Absolutely ridiculous. This is why I’m so scared to go see a doctor in the States. I’m totally confused about how healthcare and insurance work here, and I always feel like I am going to be charged an arm and a leg.

That certainly doesn’t sound right. I had an ambulance trip earlier this year, and it only cost around $250 (I think), and my health insurance paid for it all. But then this is Australia, and we have a relatively good public health system. I’m assuming you’re in the US, which I’ve heard has terrible health policies.

Just in defense of the doctors I’ve worked with, because this was their situation and they were wonderful doctors: If they’re staff doctors – meaning they work specifically for the hospital, are employed by the hospital, and do not just have an affiliation between their private practices and the hospital, then they are not charging you anything. Their employer, the hospital, is charging you. The doctor that treated you is making the same amount regardless of what you were charged for. Remember this the next time you lash out at doctors in a blanket fashion.

@poofandmook The last time we had to make a hospital trip (to the same hospital), we received separate bills for the doctors’ fees. So yes, the doctors WILL be charging me. This is only the first bill. I wouldn’t have included “doctors” in my question title without knowing exactly what I’m talking about. Remember that you don’t know everything the next time you lash out at someone who is having a really difficult time.

@WillWorkForChocolate: I wasn’t lashing out at you and I apologize if it’s coming off that way. I was merely pointing out that everyone rushes to blame the doctor, when sometimes, it’s the hospital and not the doctor. Nor did I ever claim to know everything. So my suggestion is that even though you’re having a hard time, which I sympathize with, try not to take it out on someone else.

Not following anymore. Good luck with your problem.

sigh…

<gives @WillWorkForChocolate another hug>

sincerely thanks @JilltheTooth for all the hugs