Posted: 12/19/2002 8:22:44 PM EDT
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The bill just came today for my wife's trip to the emergency room last month. A cut to the finger that took seven stitches to close. $700? Are they making stitches out of gold thread now??? I'm going to have to call to see how they break down this $700. I wonder if the aspirin they gave her cost $50 each... |
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That's what sucks about having an MSA. Low monthly premium, HIGH deductible. I'm going to have to put my negotiating skills to work. They're charging me like I'm an insurance company (which usually negotiates bills from what I've read). One good thing about an MSA is that it makes you take charge of health care costs. Last month I needed some antibiotics for a sinus infection. $140 later I had some pills that gave me chest pains and I had to stop taking them. I call the Doctors office to ask about a substitute, the nurse says 'oh, we have some free samples of antibiotics you can take'. [b]Free samples???? FREE SAMPLES???[/b] Why didn't you just give me the free samples in the first place???!?!?!?!?! I'm going end up like a use car salesman...trying to negotiate everything. |
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Quoted: thats cause all the con men and thiefs from the last couple decades decided that it would be easier to do their job legally. so they got an education and became doctors and lawyers. I don't mind the doctors - it's the damn lawyers that are driving up costs. And politicians. Take away the cost of malpractice insurance, remove the influence of politicians, and *gasp* switch to a completely self-insured / msa type health care system, and the cost of this goes down to $200, tops. |
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Things like that are what they make duct tape for.. $700 -OR- $1 We don't need no steenking stitches. I just about cut half the skin on my thumb off yesterday and just wrapped it in electrical tape and gauze. Didn't bleed as much as I thought it was going to though, just hurt alot. I've gotten stitches a whole one time in my life. :) |
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Bastiat: I'd bet it breaks down like this: $500 use of the emergency room (think of it as rent on a high dollar hotel suite--even if you only use the bed, not the whirlpool, big screen, etc., you still rented the room). $40 for suturing and other materials (local anesthetic, bandaging supplies, etc). $60 medications, $100 physician bill (although you might get a separate bill from the physicians practice). A good bet--call the hospital billing office and negotiate the bill. If you had an insurance plan, and your deductable was $50 for an ER visit, the insurance would probably only pay the Hospital their negotiated fee of (for example) $300, maybe a little more with supplies. So, the hospital would receive $350ish total if you had insurance. Ask about cash discounts, etc. AFARR |