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Crappy day @ the ER Saturday

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  • rmantoo

    Cranky old fart: Pull my finger
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Jan 9, 2013
    814
    76
    San Angelo
    Starting last wednesday I've felt...weird. Super tired (like, 2 weeks into ranger school or pldc tired), kinda groggy all day like I took a late afternoon nap and never fully woke up after... pretty much all day wednesday to now I've felt like that.

    On Thursday I fell walking across the living room, and again going from the garage to my truck. Friday, fell again. No warning, no vertigo, no dizzyness. Just walking normally when I noticed the ground/wall/pickup side coming at me.

    Didn't loose consciousness, didn't blackout. Nothing abnormal except for the falling.

    Saturday morning, happened again. Wife said go to urgent care and have them check me out...Urgent care PA said, basically, "yeah, weird. Not sure what's up, but you need to go to the ER so you can get a CT scan..." I asked him if he had any idea what a CT scan would cost? "no sir, I really don't, but you have blue cross, so it shouldn't be bad."

    Went to the ER, where they checked me in, gave me a gown, had me change, and then a chest xray (in case fluid build up was hurting breating/oxygen), EKG (doc said it was perfect), and then a CT scan (again, nothing found).

    After all of this- maybe 20-25 minutes of actual services and talking w/nurse and doc, I waited for almost 3 more hours for the doc to come back and say, "Yeah, we can't find anything, but your heart seems fine, your ct shows no tumors, a real head scratcher. I'm referring you to neurology monday."

    5 minutes later, admin lady comes in and gives me the preliminary bill: $8500 (aprox) total, with my part being $4900 (aprox) after insurance does their part (we hadn't met our deductible up to that point, for the year). At which point, I stood up, dropped the gown (in front of admin type and my wife). Wife, "What are you doing?"

    "Getting dressed and leaving. For that kinda money, I"m not staying a minute longer. I wasn't in distress. I wasn't suffering anything acute or severe, wasn't bleeding out, wasn't in cardiac arrest, fib, or ANYTHING that could reasonably be considered an emergency- or whatever, but not a single freaking person in this place even HINTED at what this might cost. Not a peep. Just 'do you have insurance? Oh, blue cross, ok, and thank you' and then kept ordering more tests and costing us money. I thought, maybe they'd say electrolytes, or low iron or quit jerking off so much, or something. I KNEW I should have waited until monday. SCREW THIS! " She tried to calm me down, but to no avail. I dressed and started walking out.

    Got out of the ER entrance and a sheriffs deputy standing by the temperature checker put his hand on his pistol butt, extended his left hand towards me, and asked if I was ok.

    "Yes sir. Just fine," as I pulled the little ekg tapes, pulled tape covering the cannula in my left arm (they took blood and left the cannula in case of more draws or if I needed an IV, etc), and started to pull the cannula.

    "Sir, let's get a nurse- Are you trying to leave? Were you admitted to the ER? What room are you in, do they know you left?"

    "No thank you. No, I'm not trying: I'm leaving. Yes. No idea. My wife sure as hell does. SHE's still in the room, probably waiting for some kind of permission to leave. Me? I'm not going back unless I'm forced to." (as I checked off each response with a dropped finger, counting down his questions)

    "You need to be discharged before you leave, sir." "Unless you arrest or detain me, I'm leaving. I will comply with your instructions if either of those are the case. Otherwise, I'm leaving."

    Nurse at the entrance asked me to sit down so she could pull the cannula, which I did, and she did.

    Never raised my voice in any of the above- the capitals were the parts of sentences I put emphasis on. Never yelled. Nothing like that. I'm sure my face was a mask of anger and determination, though, because I was PISSED. After she put a bandaid thing on my arm, I stood up and asked the officer if it was ok if I leave? "Yes sir."

    Went and sat beside my wife's car and waited for her.

    Created a huge argument with my wife. Embarrassed her. Worried her.

    I know I'm a cantankerous semi-old fart, but that entire situation was simply too much for me to accept like a meek kitten.
    Texas SOT
     

    jrbfishn

    TGT Addict
    Lifetime Member
    Rating - 100%
    3   0   0
    Aug 9, 2013
    28,316
    96
    south of killeen
    Sounds like a shitty deal. Hospitals routinely use that. Had one try it on me with my ex once. 27 hours in the ER and no doc yet. Said we were leaving. Against the nurse and LE "advice",no warrant or court orders, we left. Went to Galveston and were home with meds in 4 hours.
    A friend of mine was having the same problem a few years ago. Too many vitamins and meds on an empty stomach. A simple blood lab was all it took for a diagnosis. No more falling down.

    Sent by an idjit coffeeholic from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
     

    candcallen

    Crotchety, Snarky, Truthful. You'll get over it.
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Jul 23, 2011
    21,358
    96
    Little Elm
    There should be some serious discounts on there when the insc gets done paying.

    That said.

    Thank obama care for hastening insc to irrelevance the point people are basically uninsured because of the deductible. 5 ot 7.5 grand deductibles will bankrupt most families especially after the expense of the plans. If you wernt in the ER they would be asking for you're portion upfront.

    Yes sir you need a lifesaving surgery that's going to be 100 grand but if you dont pay your copays and deductibles upfront your going to die cause we wont let the procedure co forward. No it's not your business we double the cost to get every Penny we can from the insc company, they really have too by the way cause of Obamacare reimbursement rates.

    A major reset of health insc is needed. DR BILLS SHOULD BE CLEAR AND LIST CHARGES, NEGOTIATED REIMBURSEMENT RATES, REQUIRED GOVERNMENT REIMBURSEMENT RATES AND WHAT A CASH UNINSURED PATIENT WOULD PAY. SAME GOES FOR ALL THE NEGOTIATED COSTS FOR DRUGS.

    My daughter had an office visit bill of 750 dollars. They have to charge that much because of reimbursement rates. After all the bullshit discounts and deductibles the dr gets about 100 bucks. if you didnt have insc they would charge you 75 to 100 bucks.

    It's a real mad scientist concoction of fuzzy math lies, damn lies, deals and padding people cant figure out. Why do you think medical coding and billing is an actual college degree now in some places.
     

    Dougw1515

    TGT Addict
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    0   0   0
    Jul 14, 2020
    3,488
    96
    USA
    It's been well documented that Urgent Care facilities are seldom covered by insurance. Never, ever, ever go to these neighborhood Urgent care places. They advertise "Most Insurance Accepted" what they fail to tell you is no/few insurance companies pay for their services. They are not associated with any hospital. Their doctors, on most plans, are out of network - hence you become responsible for the charges. I can't tell you if the bill you were presented covered the "Urgent" care charges. If not you can add those charges to the bill. As Todd stated the bill you were provided may, or may not, be influenced by in network facilities. If your insurance company has no agreement with that facility.... could get pretty ugly.

    NEVER GO TO URGENT CARE FACILITIES - If it's urgent call an ambulance. They won't take you to an urgent care facility!!! They'll take you to the hospital. If it's not urgent schedule an appointment with your Primary Care physician or go to the emergency room on you own. NOTE: You will have extreme difficulty getting admitted to a hospital through the emergency room services as a walk-in customer. Blame it on Covid19.
     
    Last edited:

    candcallen

    Crotchety, Snarky, Truthful. You'll get over it.
    Emeritus - "Texas Proud"
    Rating - 100%
    2   0   0
    Jul 23, 2011
    21,358
    96
    Little Elm
    I'm guessing that a large portion of the bill was your unmet deductible.
    Yep. Might as well be uninsured with such large deductibles.

    God I miss working for the state in the 80s and 90s. Insc was 5 bucks for the family with no copays or deductibles till you hit an ER or major surgery. Then you were only out a few bucks.
     

    Sasquatch

    TGT Addict
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    3   0   0
    Apr 20, 2020
    6,590
    96
    Magnolia
    Yep. Might as well be uninsured with such large deductibles.

    God I miss working for the state in the 80s and 90s. Insc was 5 bucks for the family with no copays or deductibles till you hit an ER or major surgery. Then you were only out a few bucks.

    I had a very similar plan up thru the mid 2000's as far as copay / deductibles go. I didn't have medical offered by my employer at the time, I paid out of pocket for it. Family of 3 (ex wife & step daughter) ran us $250 a month for coverage you cannot get today. $10 office visits, $100 max out of pocket for ER visits. Free scrips. $1000 max out of pocket for hospitalizations / ambulance trips.

    Before I left Oregon, the insurance I had thru my former business was a "silver" level plan. $3500 deductible, 80/20 split after. It was a small group rate plan, and they charged the same amount per each dependent added - family coverage would've run me $1500 a month for my wife & kiddo on our plan, so they were covered thru my wife's employer.

    My business paid 50% of the premium, we paid 50% out of pocket for ourselves and employees, but dependents were 100% out of pocket for us, as the business was operating on thin margins and paying for all the dependents was not feasible, especially with one of my employees having 3 kids and a wife.

    Obamacare really fucked things up. Whereas we used to be able to shop directly with the insurers, we had to go thru the stupid "Marketplace" to get coverage every year. And of course being in Oregon, that was a disaster because Oregon can't just use the damn federal system for anything - they always have to do their own bullshit and it doesn't work nearly as well as what the feds offer for "free"
     

    Mills

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    Mar 22, 2020
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    Texas
    That seems to be the standard procedure at ERs , rack up the bill with as many test as they can offer, then send you to a specialist who will repeat all the test, then send you to another specialist, who will run more test .
     

    mnpshooter

    Active Member
    Rating - 100%
    1   0   0
    Jul 8, 2020
    262
    76
    Centex
    The tests the ER doc did were completely warranted to rule out all the potential life threatening causes of syncope (passing out). ER doctors are really only able to find imminent life threatening conditions. There are many reasons for passing out, but only a few are life threatening. That being said you should see your Doctor and get a carotid ultrasound and a Holter monitor (wear at home heart monitor) these would cover any other serious issues that can cause what happened to you. I am a paramedic that has 26 years in emergency medicine including 22 working in ER.
    As for ER costs and medical insurance that could be a 1000 page thread itself. The main things that need to happen to reduce costs is 1. Get the government out of the healthcare business.
    2. Hospital and other healthcare costs should be openly available BEFORE you need it so you can shop around.
    3.Every individual needs to take ownership in their health. I’m not saying that everyone has to be a super fitness nut, but they should have a decent diet, get out and walk regularly, check your blood pressure, and get routine checkups especially after 40. Good luck to you and stay safe.
     

    oldag

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    7   0   0
    Feb 19, 2015
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    Hope you are doing better and the problem can be found and corrected.

    Very frustrating.

    Hospitals know what the insurance "discount" will be at the time, yet they want payment of the "sticker" amount up front. Then they want to take months to get the overpayment refunded. I have had some firm discussions with hospitals and docs on this issue.

    Paid my own insurance when Obama care hit, more than doubled the cost.
     

    Army 1911

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    1   0   0
    Mar 17, 2008
    6,504
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    Dallas Texas or so
    Went to an urgent care 3 weeks ago for stitches. Total out of pocket $98. I will argue that with insurance co. I could have gone to hospital ER but thought this might be cheaper (it was) and save the ins money.
     
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