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I have good insurance through a major company. My SO tripped, and hit their head on a curb on a busy road. I wasn't there, but by happenstance an EMT was ther
by banana_giraffe 6y ago
I have good insurance through a major company. My SO tripped, and hit their head on a curb on a busy road. I wasn't there, but by happenstance an EMT was there, witnessed the event, and came to offer aid. The EMT was concerned enough my SO ended up going to the hospital.
Several scans, and a few hours later, my SO was discharged.
I then got to spend something like 30 hours on the phone over the course of a couple of months fighting a bill for around $100k because of a typo during the admissions to the hospital.
That's bad enough on the face of it, but there were real Kafkaesque moments. Like where I was explaining to the insurance company that this was not an automobile incident just because there were cars nearby, not once, not twice, but five times, once with a form that asked for pictures of the intersection and made me describe why cars would be stopped at a red light.
- tomrod 6y agoAlways ask for the billing and procedure codes, also known as DGN, ICD10, and CPT/HPCPS Medical transcribing has a high error rate.
- banana_giraffe 6y agoFair point. In this case, though, the error was a transcription error in the birthdate. That caused a mess.
- tomrod 6y agoHow rough! Sorry man.
- munk-a 6y agoYou're not wrong but this is a sign of a very broken system and the people least able to deal with it on even footing are people who may be in extreme pain or delirious from their injury. The US healthcare system is immoral.
- newsclues 6y agoIt’s immoral and the broken complexity is by design. Unraveled messes not to be fixed lest the profits disappear
- jrmg 6y agoAsk who? When?
- tomrod 6y agoYour health insurance policy provider, as soon as you get an EOB.
- tornato7 6y agoThat's awful. I hit my head in Thailand and went to the hospital, excellent experience I was in and out in 2 hours, got CT scanned and fully examined by a specialist, then left with a USB drive of my brain scans all for $180 out of pocket.
- joshspankit 6y agoThat’s awesome. Up here in Canada I have not gotten a bill yet (including when my daughter had to get brain scans), but one thing is it’s very hard to get the actual scans. I had to no joke steal my own chest xrays to get a copy.
- 1996 6y ago> one thing is it’s very hard to get the actual scans. I had to no joke steal my own chest xrays to get a copy. unacceptable. In Asia, you have the personal email and cellphone of your dedicated administrative assistant (you won't ever have to talk to another one) who takes care of things like that. You just tell her to obtain your CT and fedex it to your doctor, and they call you back when it's done.
- ryanbrunner 6y agoSome providers are getting better at this. The hospital I visit has an online system that gives you tons of details on your results (to be fair, I don't think you see actual scans, but you do see all the notes and observations made on them which are clearly intended to be communicated between doctors and other care providers primarily).
- pkaye 6y agoHow much does the $180 compare to the average income of a worker in Thailand?
- coryrc 6y agoAverage monthly wage is ~$475? US is $3k-$4k? https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/wages https://tradingeconomics.com/thailand/wages
- cameronh90 6y agoI went to an optician for a routine eye test, and they detected something severely wrong with the appearance of my retina and called an ambulance thinking I had a brain aneurysm. Several hours and CT scans later, I was informed my brain was fine and I just have a strange retina, and will need annual follow up. I've been sent a letter every year since, inviting me back to the hospital, and every year they tell me it's still fine. So far I've paid £25 for the eye test (which I completed at a later date!) as I do not get my eye-tests subsidied by the NHS. However my employer reimbursed me for that too...