My wife has Covid and has not been well. This was her 4th day in bed with every symptom there is except maybe shortness or breath. I ran an errand this morning and before I could get back home she called me and said she was feeling numb everywhere and I could tell she was scared so I hauled it home and took her to the hospital. To note, we’d already been to an urgent care to diagnose her with Covid and they had told us which hospitals were taking Covid patients so we went there instead of back to the urgent care this time. I was certain she needed IV fluids and meds from dehydration and malnutrition.
I got her to the hospital ER and after signing her in they took her in a small room nearby the front desk and told me I could stay outside or go home because I couldn’t go back with her. So I ran an errand down the street and got a call from my wife about 15 mins later (been there about 30 total minutes) that they had given her a Zofran pill for nausea and were denying her the IV Fluids we came in for because apparently they can push the Covid further into the system. They told her the pill was all they could do and she needed to go home now.
Here’s were it gets odd…(I haven’t made it back yet to ER) the checkout lady gave my wife a bill right there in the ER even though she gave her our Insurance info and asked if my wife wanted her to swipe the Card for the full amount. My wife, mind you, is still in bad shape but luckily stops her and says No. They were about to run our card for $2600 for less than 30 mins and a nausea pill. Come to find out they ran it first for $700 without authorization and then refunded it back and ran again for $300 which my wife agreed on. Not sure why, but besides the point.
Are ER visits always that expensive no matter the issue and are they supposed to try to make you pay in full upfront even though you told them to submit to insurance? It just seemed so shady the money part while she was down and out like they were taking advantage of her because we had insurance. They billed like $5800 and said Insurance would pay $3200 or so and we’d owe the rest because deductible hasn’t been met. Sure wishing we had gone back to the urgent care after that mess… The good news is my wife is feeling much better and can finally keep food down and take her meds after 4 days. I’m just shocked at the cost of a brief ER visit where not much care was given in my opinion and the hounding for money. Rant over…
I got her to the hospital ER and after signing her in they took her in a small room nearby the front desk and told me I could stay outside or go home because I couldn’t go back with her. So I ran an errand down the street and got a call from my wife about 15 mins later (been there about 30 total minutes) that they had given her a Zofran pill for nausea and were denying her the IV Fluids we came in for because apparently they can push the Covid further into the system. They told her the pill was all they could do and she needed to go home now.
Here’s were it gets odd…(I haven’t made it back yet to ER) the checkout lady gave my wife a bill right there in the ER even though she gave her our Insurance info and asked if my wife wanted her to swipe the Card for the full amount. My wife, mind you, is still in bad shape but luckily stops her and says No. They were about to run our card for $2600 for less than 30 mins and a nausea pill. Come to find out they ran it first for $700 without authorization and then refunded it back and ran again for $300 which my wife agreed on. Not sure why, but besides the point.
Are ER visits always that expensive no matter the issue and are they supposed to try to make you pay in full upfront even though you told them to submit to insurance? It just seemed so shady the money part while she was down and out like they were taking advantage of her because we had insurance. They billed like $5800 and said Insurance would pay $3200 or so and we’d owe the rest because deductible hasn’t been met. Sure wishing we had gone back to the urgent care after that mess… The good news is my wife is feeling much better and can finally keep food down and take her meds after 4 days. I’m just shocked at the cost of a brief ER visit where not much care was given in my opinion and the hounding for money. Rant over…
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