Here is the reason you have to have medical insurance while you are in the US waiting for EAD/AP

[Loren Y 2,732]

4 hours ago, geowrian said:

The drugs that would be administered pre-op, during op, and post op (and dosages) might have been impacted by a pregnancy. How they approach the surgery might be impacted as well. There was also an x-ray noted in the invoice.

This is exactly right. I was asking to know about every test and procedure, and I was staying on top of them to try and avoid any unnecessary charges. The reason they gave was the above exactly, and it was done right before the CT scan ( 6315.00 by the way), but they said it would be needed unless as one poster had said she had a hysterectomy or some other procedure to make pregnancy impossible, and even then we would have had to prove that anyway and that would have been a little hard at 3am on a Saturday Morning.

[Loren Y 2,732]

8 hours ago, Kabena said:

Holly Molly! this is insane. I took my mom to the ER last week now I'm very anxious about the upcoming bill.

Not to worry you, but I went thru the bill, just the charge for the ER visit, no testing or anything, just to sit in the exam room was 3543.23. 

[Kabena 4]

This is crazy.

[cyclone27 710]

If u had no insurance you simply wouldn’t pay least that is how it goes. Then the hospital will end up writing off most of it.

 

22k for my wife’s last pregnancy.

3k for a visit to ER for my son.

 

ER sticker shock certainly makes you think twice about going there unless it’s truly an emergency. 

[Crazy Cat 39,400]

14 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

If u had no insurance you simply wouldn’t pay least that is how it goes. Then the hospital will end up writing off most of it.

 

22k for my wife’s last pregnancy.

3k for a visit to ER for my son.

 

ER sticker shock certainly makes you think twice about going there unless it’s truly an emergency. 

Probably...but not guaranteed....depends on what you could negotiate with the hospital.......they could bill you for the entire charges, although they would likely cut you a deal...........insurance companies get big discounts because of their volume and negotiated allowables.

[Crazy Cat 39,400]

11 hours ago, EandH0904 said:

As an ER nurse and PHRN for 12 years this does not surprise me at all. The only thing does is how cheap your Zofran and Propofol were! 

 

This is also charges billed to insurance.  If you had no insurance at all and were billed direct pay it would prob be 10-15% of what it is.

 

The insurance issues raise the price of big pharma too. They will bill Blue Cross for $946 for a med that out of pocket cost is $33. 

And I hope your wife is feeling better!

Exactly!!!  That Zofran charge caught my eye, too.....I guess the generic has gone down in price in the past 6 years......when my late wife needed it.

[yuna628 9,533]

27 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

If u had no insurance you simply wouldn’t pay least that is how it goes. Then the hospital will end up writing off most of it.

 

22k for my wife’s last pregnancy.

3k for a visit to ER for my son.

 

ER sticker shock certainly makes you think twice about going there unless it’s truly an emergency. 

Speaking as a person who once had no insurance, it doesn't work that way.

I paid every last dime of my bill. There was no negotiating. And they would harass me about it.

 

4 hours ago, Loren Y said:

This is exactly right. I was asking to know about every test and procedure, and I was staying on top of them to try and avoid any unnecessary charges. The reason they gave was the above exactly, and it was done right before the CT scan ( 6315.00 by the way), but they said it would be needed unless as one poster had said she had a hysterectomy or some other procedure to make pregnancy impossible, and even then we would have had to prove that anyway and that would have been a little hard at 3am on a Saturday Morning.

That's about right for a CT scan. Even my husband who needed an ER trip last year was charged about that much. He only stayed a couple of hours but the bill was between $6000-$8000. In reviewing some of the other bills though, it usually ends up being the actual doctor and surgeon that makes the least amount of money. My actual surgeon charged the insurance about $1600 for the pleasure of removing my innards, the insurance will not give him that much. But the hospital charged over $6000 for 'operating room facility fee', and they got almost that much!

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

  My son as an uninsured adult showed up at the ER with a ruptured appendix , in recovery they figured he had complications and needed a second surgery ,    He spent over a month trying to get his weight up to 115 so they would release him.   The bill for the room was 96K  the doctor over 40k  it has a nightmare .  At the time he owned nothing so the worked with him at getting discounts and medical helped.  Took him years to pay his part off.  

[cyclone27 710]

Yuna - oh it works that way. I know plenty of people refused to pay who didn’t have insurance. They ignored the harassment, and didn’t care about their credit. Eventually the hospitals just wrote the debt off because they realized they were never ever going to get it.

[Crazy Cat 39,400]

1 minute ago, cyclone27 said:

Yuna - oh it works that way. I know plenty of people refused to pay who didn’t have insurance. They ignored the harassment, and didn’t care about their credit. Eventually the hospitals just wrote the debt off because they realized they were never ever going to get it.

"Refused to pay ".......SMH.      The hospitals could have sued......if they wanted to.

[cyclone27 710]

Sure they can sue, but if someone doesn’t have the dosh it will make no difference.

[Crazy Cat 39,400]

1 minute ago, cyclone27 said:

Sure they can sue, but if someone doesn’t have the dosh it will make no difference.

Then the rest of us get to pay for their care.......great.....

[yuna628 9,533]

17 minutes ago, cyclone27 said:

Yuna - oh it works that way. I know plenty of people refused to pay who didn’t have insurance. They ignored the harassment, and didn’t care about their credit. Eventually the hospitals just wrote the debt off because they realized they were never ever going to get it.

So they were irresponsible deadbeats that refused to pay their bills, so that ultimately someone else pays for it. How cool.

11 minutes ago, missileman said:

Then the rest of us get to pay for their care.......great.....

Yep pretty much. Meanwhile I paid my bill as an uninsured person and they still threatened me with collections because of their clerical error. Honest people get screwed, but deadbeats just shrug and everyone else pays for it.

[Sarah&Facundo 577]

Sure, they can refuse to pay. But then they will also have no credit to buy a home, rent an apartment, buy a car, take a school loan, or really do anything for a very long time (maybe even for the rest of their lives).

 

I went to the hospital in the middle of the night for a UTI a few years ago. My gyno didn't pick up at 3am and it was BAD (not going to gross people out with the details). I was there for about an hour. Without insurance, my bill was $5000. I had also denied a pregnancy test because I hadn't done anything at all. I also denied the STD test. They never gave me either one in the end, but guess what! It was on the bill!! We had to fight that for a while. 

 

Healthcare in this country is a disaster. I go to my husband's country for most things. If it doesn't change in the next few years (and I doubt it will), my husband and I have talked about leaving the US.

[britishandusa 446]

13 hours ago, yuna628 said:

 Even though I told them there is literally no way I could be pregnant (seriously). ''Well how do you know???" ''Oh dude.. really, are you really going to ask me that?" And yes, it really does cost that much.

Unfortunately, most providers should always test female patients for a possible pregnancy. Every time before I go into a procedure with a female patient, I am require to test just in case and 99% of the time they always insist they aren't and 9/10 they usually are right. However, it is always best to be safe than sorry. I did have one patient who swore up and down there was no way she couldn't be pregnant and it turned out she was 4 weeks pregnant and had no idea. These things are put in place to protect the patient and the medical staff (aka prevent a law suit if something were to arise)