I guess I have a hard time understanding our health care system and especially hospitals. One time I went to the hospital to the emergency room for a possible broken wrist. I was there for about 1-1 1/2 hours. After sitting for a long time I was finally given an xray. Then a doctor looked at the xray and then an ace bandage was wrapped around my wrist as it was not broken but a bad sprain. In all I would say the doctor was in my presence maybe 5 minutes. And a nurse maybe another 5 minutes. A couple weeks later I received a bill from the hospital fro $3500.
This past september I was in a central american country and had to go to the emergency room of a hospital as I was having congestion one night and could hardly breathe while sleeping. They put me on a respirator for about 45 minutes and I was checked thoroughly by both a doctor and a nurse. Then I was given an okay to leave. Total time maybe 1 1/2 hours. I went to pay clerk and my bill was $50. You tell me about gouging?
2006-11-16 05:41:35 · 3 answers · asked by nellie 3 in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Injuries
In the central american country, I was not asked for any insurance. When I went to the cleark I just knew it was going to cost me alot of money as I assumned they did not accept insurance. So I was about ready to grab my credit card and the woman said it was $50. I told my friend in that country and she said they overcharged me because I was a foreinger and that $25 is the normal emergency roof fee. I said are you kidding. Compared to USA I felt like $50 was a barggain.
2006-11-16 05:49:55 · update #1
What was the breakdown on your bill for $3500, how
much did the x-ray cost, how much was the bandage, how much was the doctor's fee and how much was the nurses fee ? Doctor's in the USA charge exorbitant fees, if you did not get a breakdown of your bill, ask for one but I think that the largest part of the bill would be your x-ray.
2006-11-16 05:50:25 · answer #1 · answered by whyme? 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Were you covered by insurance during either of these visits? Did the insurance cover ER visits? 50$ sounds like a fairly typical co-payment. X-ray's aren't cheap, they have to pay for both the machine and the technitian that takes the x-ray, the film, and so forth. They also charge you for every little thing and often double charge.. That's why there's new laws requiring hospitals to provide an itemized list.
2006-11-16 13:43:54 · answer #2 · answered by sovereign_carrie 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yeah Doctors and Hospitals in America are bastards.
2006-11-16 13:45:49 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋