Insane Hospital Charges

[ajfarms1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I recently had to go to emergency room for appendicitis. It was simple, not ruptured, no complications. I was never even given a room, basically outpatient surgery. When admitted I was never asked how I would pay and while I was there and when I was discharged, never did anyone come to discuss payment. Shortly after I gat a bill for over 22000 dollars. I called hospital admissions and asked what the charges would be for what I had done and they told me 4500 dollars. What can or should I do? I am considering legal action if anyone thinks I have cause for voiding this contract of adhesion. Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Ladyback1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas
I recently had to go to emergency room for appendicitis. It was simple, not ruptured, no complications. I was never even given a room, basically outpatient surgery. When admitted I was never asked how I would pay and while I was there and when I was discharged, never did anyone come to discuss payment. Shortly after I gat a bill for over 22000 dollars. I called hospital admissions and asked what the charges would be for what I had done and they told me 4500 dollars. What can or should I do? I am considering legal action if anyone thinks I have cause for voiding this contract of adhesion. Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

$22K for an abdominal surgery sounds pretty reasonable.

 

[Silverplum]

What's your case, other than your "insane cost" theory?

 

[Just Blue]

Px Hx is...interesting.

 

[ajfarms1]

What's your case, other than your "insane cost" theory?

Why are they billing me 22000 when same circumstance through the ER, same path I took, a cash paying patient like myself only pays 4500? Had I been given the chance to pay I would have. My position as middle aged male with a premium credit score is probably why I was not offered the other option.

 

[LdiJ]

Why are they billing me 22000 when same circumstance through the ER, same path I took, a cash paying patient like myself only pays 4500? Had I been given the chance to pay I would have. My position as middle aged male with a premium credit score is probably why I was not offered the other option.

If you do not have insurance you may be able to negotiate the bill down. Generally I can get 40-50% knocked off as a self-pay.

 

[ajkroy]

You may not even have all of the bills yet. There will be bills for the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the pathologist, and pre-op testing in addition to the hospital's bill. Be prepared. Normal post op care should be included in the cost of the surgery.

OP, yours is a textbook example of why people should have insurance.

My son had two bone marrow transplants, one at age 11 and one at 12. Both would have cost me north of $250K, but I didn't pay a dime because of my insurance.

One of the only good things I see about ACA is the deterrent penalty for people without insurance to pay (although statistics say that 90% of people without insurance will be exempted).

 

[LdiJ]

You may not even have all of the bills yet. There will be bills for the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the pathologist, and pre-op testing in addition to the hospital's bill. Be prepared. Normal post op care should be included in the cost of the surgery.

OP, yours is a textbook example of why people should have insurance.

My son had two bone marrow transplants, one at age 11 and one at 12. Both would have cost me north of $250K, but I didn't pay a dime because of my insurance.

One of the only good things I see about ACA is the deterrent penalty for people without insurance to pay (although statistics say that 90% of people without insurance will be exempted).

I would say that its probably 99% of people in my age bracket. The rates under the exchange for people in my age bracket are so high that a single person would have to have income in the low six figures before they would meet the definition of "affordable" under the ACA...and that is for 70/30 coverage which is pitiful.

Think about it? Under the ACA silver plan today those 250k bone marrow transplants would only be 70% covered by the ACA. Could you have covered 75k of each of those procedures without ending up bankrupt?

I honestly was looking forward to the ACA thinking that I could get affordable coverage. Instead of it being better than I could have gotten prior to the ACA, it was infinitely worse. On top of that, I hear story after story of people who had reasonable coverage that is no longer available to them at a reasonable price.