rabies shots covered?

[thequeen0206]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?Illinois
My family was staying at a friends lake house in Wisconsin Dells Wi. for a long weekend vacation. The lake house had a colony of bats living in there. My family was exposed to rabies & per the request of our local health dept. in Rockford, Il. we are receiving rabies shots. The problem is that 2 of us in the family do not have health insurance to pay for these shots. We were required to get some of the shots through the ER & some of shots at the out patient in the hospital, because no doctors would administer them. So far, our medical bills for 2 people are at about $15,000.00 for our shots. We haven't even received all the bills yet. I wonder if our friends homeowner's policy would cover the medical bills. Their lake house is inWisconsin,but they live in Rockford, Il. I've heard that if someone were bit by a dog on a homeowners property & had to receive rabies that it would be covered or if someone were to fall & breaktheir arm that would be covered also. Would our rabies shots?

[ecmst12]

Yes, most likely there is coverage for this. File the claim.

[thequeen0206]

How do I go about filing a claim with our friends insurance company?

[divona2000]

Originally Posted by thequeen0206

...The lake house had a colony of bats living in there. My family was exposed to rabies & per the request of our local health dept. in Rockford, Il. we are receiving rabies shots...So far, our medical bills for 2 people are at about $15,000.00 for our shots. We haven't even received all the bills yet.

Rabies is passed from animals to humans by way of a bite from saliva of an infected animal, and, rarely, it can be passed if infected saliva gets into the eyes, nose and mouth of a human. Preventative treatment includes a shot of rabies immunoglobulin, a dose of antibodies, and five shots of rabies vaccine spread over 30 days. The shots must be started as soon as possible, within 48 to 72 hours

Was every member of your family bitten, or touched by saliva?

Why is the treatment so expensive? The run of shots usually costs $1,500 or less.

[thequeen0206]

Yes every member was considered exposed, we either picked them up to get them out of the house or they were found flying in our bedroom while we were sleeping, which means a bat could have bitten us while we were sleeping & not know it. Quite a few of the bats were dead or they died soon after we we got them out of the house, which raised concerns as to why they all died. Non of the bats were tested for rabies.

The shots are so expensive because the shots we had to get were given to us in the ER of one of our local hospitals. It was only my 20 year old daughter & myself (the mom) that had to get them in the ER. As far as the immunal globulin shots, I had to receive 3 of those, not including my regular rabies shot & my daughter recieved 4. My younger children were able to receive theirs from their pediatricians office & they aslo have insurance so I'm not worried about the cost of their shots, only mine & my 20 year old daughters.

[justalayman]

not that this alters your course of action but somebody should make sure those bats are tested for rabies. If positive, it would be imperative the owner have the bats removed and prevent a re infestation so nothing such as this would happen again.

and how to file:

you call up your friend who will call his HO insurance company. The the insurance company should then contact you to investigate the situation.

If the friend refuses to do this, your only recourse would be to ask your friend to pay out of pocket. If he refuses, sue him. At that time, he would either have to pay out of pocket, or get his insurance company involved.

sounds harsh but $15k ain't chicken feed, unless you have a really big flock.

[xylene]

Whatever you do, do not pay the hospital a dime.

It sounds harsh, but do not send them a cent until it is all settled.

Don't throw away your leverage with the hospital out. Make them sue.

[thequeen0206]

I don't know if this makes any difference or not, but since I didn't know that I could file a claim against our friends HO insurance for the bills, I have already started the process to try to have the hospital consider us for charity assistance to have the bills "taken care of". Should I at least see if that comes through for us first & if it does not, then pursue the HO insurance route?

[justalayman]

It would be the easiest and would help out the friend. Just be sure to give what you can (blood, volunteer) in return to the hospital. While it is called charity, it actually gets paid by others being billed just a little bit more, essentially.


make sure the friend takes care of the bats. His insurance may have a problem with the bats in his belfry.