The hospital bills are coming in after losing our baby nearly 7 weeks ago. Here's a lesson we've learned, always ask for an itemized bill. M. requested one and it came today. We found some interesting things on it.
The most shocking is that they gave me a pregnancy test. I was 18 weeks pregnant and showing. I was in the ER because I had started spotting and was there for a "threatened miscarriage," but yet they had to do a test to prove it. Anyone want to guess how much a pregnancy test costs? $5? $10? Yeah, in a store...But go to the ER and they charge you $65.77 for a urine, pregnancy test.
I was also charged $94 for an IV that I never received.
They tested me for STDs too. It doesn't matter that I've been tested many times, in the course of my fertility treatment, for STDs and have a mutually monogamous relationship with my husband. But while testing me for STDs, did they bother checking for an infection? Of course not (since that's what was really wrong). Wanna know how much it cost ME for them to find out what I could have told them? $165
Another test that they ran could have been spared with a simple question to the patient...They checked my RH factor. This is something that I was tested for with Aiden, so I could have told them what they'd find. But they chose to just charge me $53.75 instead of asking me.
No wonder insurance costs are on the rise with all of this frivolous testing being done! I feel violated. All of these tests that were done, all of this information that these doctors found out about my body, and I didn't even know they were doing it. They didn't tell me. It just feels as though someone went through my underwear drawer when I asked them to find me something that was on top of my dresser.
How are we supposed to trust our doctors if they don't trust us? I wanted to post this for all of you. Learn a lesson from this and next time you're in the hospital make sure you ask for an itemized bill so you can make sure it's right. I never thought to do this before, but it makes sense. You always walk out of a store with a receipt. You should know what you're being charged for in a hospital too. It's your money. Make sure you guard it wisely.
My rant is over for the time being. We'll be calling our hospital in the morning!
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Doctors or thieves?
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3 comments:
Good for you! So many people just pay their hospital bills or have insurance that just charges them a daily amount.... And tests- wow! Battle all those excessive tests! Sheesh! Just think of all the logical things they could have been doing instead.... You call them on it, girl!!
With Alden's birth, I was billed $350 for physical therapy that I never received. Once I told them that I had had a c-section and therefor could NOT have had PT, they realized that a patient with an ID number, 1 off of my ID number, had received this PT....
Outrageous! I hope you were able to get some of that taken off...esp. the pregnancy test. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. You guys are very smart.
Good thing to keep in mind. What ended up happening? I would have been boiling :(
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