Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Friday, June 23, 2006
Selective Nerve Root Block Bills
Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I thought it was stunningly ridiculous when I found out the doctor charged $7000 for each injection, which took five minutes of his time. So, three of them ends up being $21,000. But the ridiculous turns into just speechless when the surgery center is billing me too. I think I’m at $42,000 for these injections...and my insurance isn’t paying most of it, it appears. Except for the first injection, which helped a bit, for a brief period of time, the injections were worthless to me. So, I’m being charged the equivalent of a really nice mid-sized SUV for 15 minutes of the doctor’s time (he did at least six other people while I was there too!), 15 minutes of time for several techs, 15 minutes of the nurse who started my IVs, and maybe 30 minutes of nurses watching me afterwards to make sure I didn’t fall down when I walked. My whole surgery, on the other hand, was about $19,000.
I’m just so baffled by these fees that I’m speechless. How do I write a letter to these people telling them there’s no way I’d ever be able to afford these ridiculous fees? That I can’t believe I’m being billed $14,000 for walking into a surgery center, filling out some paperwork, having an IV started, sitting around watching the Travel Channel for 20 - 45 minutes while I wait for other people to get their injections, walking into the surgery room, climbing up on the table, getting a dose of Versed, having the doctor zip in and inject me (five minutes total) with steroids & stuff, get wheeled out, given Pepsi or apple juice, put on my clothes, make sure I can walk, then get wheeled down to the car. That’s it, no meal of lobster & champagne, no limo, no actual work for the nurses in recovery, except taking out my IV and fetching me something to drink. I figure that while I was there, at least seven of us had the same thing done. They’re billing almost ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS AN HOUR!
My advice to people thinking about the injections - find out if your insurance will pay...and how much. Don’t bother getting more injections if the first one didn’t help. There’s nothing I regret more than those three stupid worthless injections. As you can imagine, I no longer enjoy getting mail. It’s also made me not feel much like updating my blog either. While I know it’s here for ranting, sometimes it seems as though the crappy stuff moves even beyond complaint.
Next entry: R.I.P, Aaron Spelling Previous entry: Time For A New Career
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I hope you’ll forgive me for all the profanity I’m about to spew onto your blog, but.. HOLY FUCK! Ho-leee-FUCK. I have no words. I can’t even BEGIN to think of anything reasonable to say because, holy FUCK is that a lot of money and.. wow. WOW. We’ve talked about the whole Canada vs US thing when it comes to health care, and I know the US is totally different, but holy shit that’s fucking *INSANE*.
I can’t blame you one bit for not feeling all that keen on getting mail or updating your blog or, really, doing anything other than walking around shouting, “HOLY FUCK”.
That’s fucking insane.
Dana on 06/24 at 06:15 AM -
Medical bills in this country are outrageous. When I had my surgery, the itemized bills showed that they charged $15 for the Sharpie pen they used to draw on my body. Um, I’m sure they don’t pay $15 for a pen that you can buy for $3 in the store. I would have brought my own Sharpie. It’s just unbelievable. Just try not to stress too much. I also paid for a stupid surgery that didn’t do anything helpful. More details in private some time. Thank god for payment plans, but they don’t remove the sting of paying oodles of $$ for nothing.
on 06/24 at 08:10 AM -
As I was being all shouty-profane (on your behalf) to Coffee, earlier, and saying how it’s no wonder people go bankrupt, he mentioned that now it’s impossible due to some law for one to declare bankruptcy based on medical bills in the US.
So my question is this: if your insurance doesn’t cover something, and it’s expensive, how are you supposed to pay? Do they let you make monthly payments for the rest of your life? Do they give you a set amount of time to pay it off before they send a repo guy to collect your back? HOW DOES THIS WORK?
Dana on 06/24 at 11:52 AM -
Holy fuck is right, Dana. We may just have to move to Canada so we can afford healthcare. I actually have insurance, so some of the bills are already paid; however, I’d estimate that there’s about 20k or so that hasn’t been paid. I got the hospital down from $2000 to $960, although they didn’t explain why it went down. I sent them a letter asking for a detailed bill and complaining about the ridiculous over-charging. They sent the detailed bill and for some reason decided to knock $1040 off the bill, but didn’t tell me why.
As for how someone is supposed to pay? Yep, probably monthly payments for the rest of their lives. Oh, it’s a great country. No socialized medicine and congress just voted not to raise the minimum wage of $5.15/hr. Imagine someone making $5.15/hr and getting my medical bills.
on 06/24 at 08:01 PM -
Kmeelyon - I documented some of the more ridiculous charges here http://www.flippyodegard.com/index.php/S=9098be66bc00c544a529fe57fbcad2946b34c087/weblog/comments/and_more_medical_bills/ , but I finally got tired of looking all the stuff up. Don’t you wish we could get away with charging $375 for a pair of $12 anti-embolism stockings. Or $13 for an 8 cent Percocet? Man, we’d be so rich. Like Halliburton or ExxonMobil.
If the bills don’t stop coming in, I’m going to need to become one of your patients. Do you do email therapy?
on 06/24 at 08:07 PM -
I wonder if price gauging laws can be applied towards medical bills. Let them know you want an itemized bill that explains every cent of the cost. There has to be some sort of action you can take here, if nothing else notifying a local news station that does expose’s on bad business practices and hopefully hurting the doctor/clinic’s income.
I get really vengance minded over stuff like this.Jack's Raging Mommy on 06/25 at 06:08 AM -
I know I don’t comment as frequently as I should, but I am here reading along.
MY GOD. I feel so horrible for all you have been going through. And to be CHARGED for such terror that doesn’t even help? AAAARrrrrgh!
I hope there is a solution. Go buy a lottery ticket in the meantime. UGH.
Kari on 06/25 at 03:04 PM -
I don’t even know what to say. Insanity is a word that comes to mind. This is also a perfect time to use my new favorite word: asshats. Yes, they are all asshats.
How are you feeling? Did the surgery at least work?
on 06/26 at 05:26 AM -
Let me just throw in my horrified sympathy here.
Nancy on 06/26 at 02:20 PM -
Thanks for the sympathy, everyone. How about the few of us here make a deal, if any of us win Powerball solo, then we take care of each other’s outstanding medical bills? Or plumbing bills. Or childcare bills. Or whatever huge scary thing occurs that just requires some cold hard cash. No fancy cars or boats, just icky unexpected bills. We’re a small group, we can do this. And of course, I’m going to have to figure how I can even buy Powerball tickets because Nevada doesn’t have any sort of lottery. Perhaps we’ll add in that if I win Megabucks, I’ll treat you guys to something really nice too?
on 06/26 at 06:24 PM
