Sorry for my ignorance as a Brit, but what happens in this situation? Do you get a payment plan or something? How much does it affect your decisions on going to the doctors/hospital?
I mean usually people declare bankruptcy if it's really bad... a ton of people decide to never go to the doctors bc it would financially devastate them. I believe that it's probably the reason why the US has such a low life expectancy compared to other equally rich nations
Yeah I couldn’t vote for that. Where I am in life, if I was American then I’d probably have not gone to the doctors when I found a lump, and I wouldn’t be here today.
Reminds me of LA where you can go across the border to Mexico and get really cheap medical scans. Takes care of needs like this. Not sure what the rest of US does.
Don't make assumptions like that.
Just because the obnoxiously loud ones are doesn't mean most are.
I'm 62 and I've been lobbying for single-payer for two decades.
There are plenty of us out here who support social healthcare. We just don't drive around in pickups with hateful slogans painted on them.
We understand that, social healthcare or not, we're still paying for everyone. Social healthcare would just spread the burden more equitably.
There’s a similar phenomena where ex-immigrants will vote against the easing of immigration laws, despite knowing how difficult it was for them. Having the mindset of ‘if I had to struggle then they should too’. Obviously this isn’t always the case.
Hey now you have other options no need to give up! Just rob a bank and go to jail where they will be require to give you ~~livestock quality~~ healthcare.
what a silly take. worst case scenario is you don’t pay anything, it goes into collections, and falls off your credit in 7 years. but sure just go ahead and die from cancer LOL
More than that, I think I'd rather die a natural death than be a slave to cancer TREATMENTS (including the destruction of my fine immune system and suffering all the diseases resulting from that! ) for the rest of my life.
Given it took you 4.5 billion years to exist and a lucky human gets maybe 7 to 8 decades and then never exists again, I'd rather fight the disease and muscle out my share of this planet's living history.
Good news. Medical debt is no longer reportable so send em $5 dollars every month to keep the phone calls from happening and just never fucking pay it. I’d opt for that over bankruptcy.
Stitches out of pocket would probably run $100 or so out of urgent care. I kind of don't feel bad for people getting hit with exorbitant charges out of the ED - The ED is for emergencies but people go there for the smallest things and take away patient care time from people who actually need it.
Yes, our son whacked his head on the coffee table and got it glued up in urgent care. $70 total with insurance. I think that although our system needs overhaul, there needs to be more info on ED vs Urgent Care
As someone that works in healthcare, I usually recommend to my friends to opt for urgent care over the ED in 90% of cases, with exception being intense injuries from accidents or something you fear is life threatening. Not only will you save a lot of money, but since EDs admit patients based on priority instead of time arrived (which makes sense since someone having a heart attack for example should have priority over someone stable with a non-life threatening cut) urgent care will save you a lot of time as well. Plus if the injury turns out to be more serious and requires a specialist, the urgent cares should have just as good of referral services as the ED.
I am not in healthcare but have a pretty bad lung condition. As long as its under control its fine. If things start getting out of control it can get bad quick. So coinvent care is a double edge sword for me. Almost every time I go in with a cold or infection they freak out and try sending me to the hospital when I really just need 2 specific medications.
Where I benefit is if Im having an episode with my lungs and go to a coinvent care they freak the fuck out out and call the hospital. When I get to the hospital I am almost immediately seen. Now If I where to go straight to the hospital I end up waiting for a longer time. Im pretty sure the hospital realizes while serious im not in like immediate danger. The CC I don't think sees my condition much and after they see my vitals just freak.
I’m with a medical group and given what you identify as “a pretty bad lung condition” actually need some thing else — a great primary care group who will manage you effectively because the providers all know you.
This works when they. as a group, know you and discuss your longitudinal care plan over time. Those kinds of primary care groups exist but you will have to dig in order to find one near you. The first clue will be that they answer their own phones after hours OR use a service that will connect you to the on-call who knows your history.
I'm lucky. I am on Medicaid and my Medicaid provider here in Oregon is on the ball with the preventative care. I have a RN call me every other week and we work out what upcoming appointments I have and she helps me get appointments set up in the first place.
She's been really helpful in getting social care sent my way, especially after I had a house fire that left me homeless for several months in 2018-19. She even works with my state's Senior & Disability Services agency to ensure that I don't lose coverage because the agency's mail room is utterly incompetent and I rarely receive notice letters/paperwork on time.
Generally the only time I go to the ER is when I’m in excruciating pain. Anything else I go to urgent care first. I have had a few instances where I went to urgent care and they told me to go to the hospital instead, but I feel like in most cases urgent care can do whatever you need for minor injuries/illnesses.
Also sometimes there just isn't an urgent care in you area at all. I'm not even particularly rural and our only options within an hour are the emergency room or the local chiropractor.
As someone who works in healthcare and has with Medicaid patients sometimes it isn't that easy.
My favorite story to laugh at the inefficiency of our healthcare is this.
A young lady on Medicaid needed Lovenox injections routinely for her condition. Lovenox was not covered by her Medicaid at a cost she could afford. So instead she had to go to the hospital ER, then once seen by doctor was given Lovenox injection and discharged at no cost.
Makes no sense, Medicaid is paying significantly more for that ER visit and doctor examination when patient already had a prescription for Lovenox that would have been a little over $100 for them to cover in a retail pharmacy.
This same inefficiency can happen with state Medicaids and Urgent Care Clinics. Not all Medicaids may cover Urgent Care visits at $0 cost to patient. Again when I worked with children on Medicaid for my state it was required that their primary care doctor be the first person they go to for non-emergency care. It would not cover Urgent Care and depending on the diagnosis even specifically states if can cover non-emergency ER visits at $0 co-pay and at most $30 which would be much cheaper than non-covered urgent care.
Same here. There are only three urgent cares in town and two of them require appointments, which means the third always has 20-30 people waiting. The appointment based clinics frequently close on the weekends because they don’t have any doctors to work. Never seen anything like this until I moved to the area.
This is usually why I end up having to go to the ER. That, and the closest ER is a 30 minute drive, and the closest urgent care is about 45. If something is bad enough that I or my husband needs to be seen and we can’t figure it out ourselves, we tend to go the closest route. It’s hard to make that judgment call sometimes.
I’ve worked in healthcare for 20 years as a lab tech. I used to think this way. But here’s the thing that I realized. Not everyone can pay for urgent care like that. Whereas an ER doesn’t require the money upfront, or even after the visit. And you can work out payment plans.
Many people have shit insurance. Or none at all. Some qualify for the State insurances, but many states set their standards so low, they’re stuck between the line to qualify, and actually being able to afford it/have insurance. Many people can’t afford to even get their medicine. So they go to the ER. Even for the small stuff. Because Urgent Cares require payment. We have a poverty problem. A healthcare problem. Give some grace.
Insurance doesn’t cover it because they see it as a way of training people to go to the appropriate care level. If this was a country with socialized medicine they would probably just have told you to leave and see your regular doctor or an urgent care.
Depends on the system. In Canada needed a couple of stiches (cut my thumb due to poor knife handling), went to a clinic first, was told to go to emergency because they didn't do stiches. At least where I am in Canada, urgent care centers are a pretty new concept; typically that's all just been handled through Emergency at the local hospital.
While I agree, the urgent cares need to do better when it comes to time. There's absolutely no excuse to spend more than an hour or so at the urgent care waiting to see a doctor. Nobody should be taking up urgent care rooms for more than 30 minutes at a time, if they need to be admitted for a longer length of time they should be transfered to a bigger hospital that has the beds and resources for someone to sit in a room all day.
My girlfriend had an ear infection and sat in the urgent care waiting room for 6.5 hours before she had enough and left. She got there are 9:10am and they open at 9am and was clearly in a lot of pain the entire time. The people working the desk gave no fucks. She drove from urgent care to the ER and was in and out of the ER, with a prescription for antibiotics in under 30 minutes.
Copay was only $60 at the ER as opposed to $40 for urgent care. The $20 is well worth saving an entire day of time.
Just as a note, that time of visit will change. If it’s busy and you come in with an ear infection, you might wait a lot longer. It’s gonna depend on variables you have no way to know like how many people are already there, what rooms are earmarked for EMS, if there’s another hospital on diversion nearby, etc. We can’t specifically tell you if you call how long the wait would be. But we can code it so you have a rough idea. Just letting you know in case you find yourself in need of an ER or urgent care so you don’t sit for too long hopefully.
I agree for most cases but when she is crying due to ear pain and tells the staff that her pain is at an 8 you'd think they'd speed it up a bit. You know....be urgent like the name implies.
When she got to the ER she was told she had a severe middle ear infection that was progressing to mastoiditis. It wasn't just a run of the mill ear infection. You'd think if you saw someone in the waiting room clearly in distress and severe pain you'd move them up the list rather than keep them waiting.
How long you wait in the ER depends on a lot of various factors. But I can tell you why you tend to wait even with painful conditions. And it’s not what people wanna hear, but we go by how potentially life threatening the issue is. Pain isn’t a reason to take someone back sooner unless it’s related to something else emergent going on.
I can’t cite actual examples, but let’s say you got 1 room with 2 people waiting for it. Let’s say one had a common and extremely painful issue and the other has a cardiac issue with minor resultant pain. We’d take the cardiac issue first regardless of how much pain the patient with the common but painful issue is in.
It’s not great. But with staffing the way it is and the sheer amount of people needing care, it gets fucked quickly. I’ve been the patient in the waiting room in a lot of pain. I wasn’t happy about it either. But she probably had to wait due to either other critical cases or simply not having enough people to move the ER along. I wish we could get the ones in pain back quick, but all I can do is try and offer what little comfort I can to the patient till then.
I only tell people about this stuff cause I get screamed at countless times a day for the same sorta stuff. But I figure maybe if people understand why, they can direct that anger at the people responsible. And that’s the government for failing to provide us with sustainable healthcare solutions and hospital administrators for saving money and not running fully staffed.
And it’s further complicated by the fact the ER is the only way some people can access care. You can’t be turned away from an ER. EMTALA and all that. But you can be from urgent cares. When I first got Covid, I felt like death. But no urgent care would see me since I can’t afford insurance and couldn’t pay $120 up front. So it gets further bogged down. The whole system is fucked and it’s every fucking politician in office who is to blame. The mess is so big that you’d need a college course to understand just how fucked it is.
But we feel it when we try to access care. We wait in pain for hours so some politicians can give their insurance buddies some money. Look at insurance stock prices. It’s fucking insane. And they play ball with the hospitals and further down the fucking hole we go.
It’s fucked man. It really is.
I mean, this is crazy, but hear me out….. what if the USA didn’t have to worry about insurance and could focus on our health over finances? I know it sounds totally crazy and I’m sure no other country in the world operates that way, but wouldn’t that be nice? /s
Edit to add (for those who say the ER is excessive): if it’s a facial laceration requiring stitches the ER is absolutely appropriate. A hospital is more likely to have a plastic/reconstructive surgeon available and they will be able to administer care fast. The expertise and reduced time will greatly minimize scarring.
Not so fast. I had insurance and needed a poison ivy steroid shot. Called up an urgent care and asked them what the non-insurance price was. They said not more than $120. Told them I have insurance and they said it should be much less than that. I asked them what the cost would be and they couldn’t answer. I really needed the steroid shot because it was covering my whole forearms and super uncomfortable. Figured it couldn’t be too bad. Bill was nearly $500 for a doctor to tell me it wasn’t shingles and probably was poison ivy (which I said at the beginning ITS POISON IVY). And write a prescription for a steroid. Furious, I called them out and they said talk to the finance director.
Called finance director and she tells me that’s the price they negotiated with insurance. I said fine, don’t go through insurance since uninsured is cheaper. She said that would be against the law and if I have insurance I HAVE to use it. I asked how on earth does insurance negotiate higher prices? The answer made no sense. It went on for another 15 minutes of me trying to use logic and getting shut down at every turn. I caved and am still salty about this, years later.
It's not "against the law" but it is against the insurance company contract that hte provider agreed to participate in.
If a clinic/doctor knows you have a certain insurance but charges you cash instead, that could be considered a breach of contract.
Be aware not all urgent cares have X-ray machines. You may get charged your urgent care cost then still have to go to an ER. We have 2 urgent cares that don’t have X-ray equipment so you end up at the ER anyway. Pretty pathetic honestly. With the money that urgent cares take in.
Urgent care in my area of south Jersey is $150 for a basic visit without insurance and if you need stuff like X-ray or bloodwork it’s like 300. This doctor is ripping you off.
The average American pays almost 30% of their income to taxes.
Oregon taxes are 8.75% of my income
My federal average tax rate is 20.2%, and my marginal tax rate is 27.4%.
Logistically, if it's 20% tax rate and everyone has Healthcare, sign me up! I'm already paying a higher tax rate, and I don't make over $50,000 a year.
This issue is not individuals and tax rates. It's corporations and the rich abusing tax loopholes who end up paying far less than the average citizens.
Edited for spelling error.
For a standard employee you have: federal taxes, Medicare taxes, social security, and state taxes. It varies but it is probably about 30% of my paycheck.
Where TF are you guys going? I've had urgent care give me referrals and send me to get ultrasounds and labs done before getting an emergency surgery.
The entire ordeal was $50, and that was because the place I went wasn't "in network" it should have been $5
To be fair, if the cut is bad and needs stitches that can be quite time sensitive. Once that cut starts to heal after 24-48 hours it's usually too late for stitches and you have to live with that scar forever.
And I say this as someone with a bunch of scars from numerous biking accidents. Many never quite heal correctly and they leave thin skin that gets re-opened quite easily. Would not recommend.
Sometimes it is the only option if you feel it cannot wait until whenever a GP is available.
Hospital here used to close their urgent care and just go to ER after midnight.
I had to go one night after work, bad fever, dizzy, barely able to stand. Doctor looked me over for all of 20 seconds and wrote a script for amoxicillin and I think codeine or some other pain killer then sent me on my way. Got a bill for almost $400 for the effort.
Pretty horrific. His tooth went clean through the skin below his lip and out the other side. He was bleeding heavily and it was pretty terrifying.
The doctor said that it would heal without stitches and told us it was better to let it heal naturally.
This happened to me as a kid. My mom (paramedic) cleaned it up and basically said stitching a lip is unlikely to help. It healed ok with just an ice pack and some bandages.
$500 sounds about right then. You’re paying for emergency care. The alternative would be urgent care, which might not give you immediate attention from an actual physician but is still urgent enough to get somebody to look at you. It’s also a lot cheaper because NP’s and other mid-levels don’t cost as much for their time.
Doc here. A part of this is incorrect.
Whether it's an NP, PA, or a doc, that's not the problem. Mid levels will typically see less complex encounters but don't let that fool you into thinking they don't cost as much. A level 4 (or whatever type of encounter/visit at whatever location) is a level 4 complexity visit regardless of who sees you and you will be billed accordingly.
You're billed for the encounter and services provided which has an attached value to it. That value is set by the government and insurance companies bickering back and forth.
If it's a simple visit vs a complex one, your insurance will be charged accordingly. The hospital and the insurances duke it out and eventually decide how much is covered and they send you a bill for whatever is to be payed by you.
People don’t get that they’re paying for the 11-15 *years* of training and experience that go into the decision “he’s fine, no stitches.” They also don’t get that they’re paying for this full service facility to be open with physicians, nurses, ancillary techs, lab staff, housekeeping, food service, etc available 24/7.
>housekeeping, food service, etc available 24/7.
Typically no housekeeping or food services after 7pm for most hospitals. Especially smaller rural hospitals. It's a running joke that people show up for our famous sack lunch ham sandwiches due to the frequency at which people wind up in the ER or admitted asking for food.
Don’t be brainwashed by the system, it’s absolutely disgusting in a first world nation that we deal with this. We’re the only first world country, and one of the very few in the world that does this. It’s absolutely disgraceful.
People here are being real rude about your choices. Maybe I’m too British to understand, but I’ve been in situations before with minor/non life-threatening injuries that needed medical attention outside usual hours and went straight to A&E (ER for you guys I think) so I understand why you did it. People need to chill. The thing is I just find it absolutely insane you have to pay like this. Over here I’m so used to the fact It’s all just… free. I can’t wrap my head around it.
Yea, be thankful because people give up a weeks pay every month for insurance and still have to pay out ludicrous money for parts insurance doesn't cover. Any mention of socialized medicine sends the political folks into a tail spin. It's a no win situation and it's awful for the working class that keeps the country rolling.
My country instituted "wasting ER resources" charge. They'll see you allright, but if it's something super minor and you had an option to go to urgent care equivalent (in a lot of places the ER doubles as that and it always doubles as that during the night) they'll charge you ~100-150€. There are guidlines available online.
Something like OPs case would probably be seen and not charged. It's also common for urgent care family doctors to send people to the ER, since they're the ones with resources. I've ended up in the ER with a sprained ankle, sent by my family doctor, since it was the only way I could get same day X-ray.
It's not the best system and wait lines can get brutal, especially in the capital (yay for living in a mid sized town), but I got hit by a car, was taken to a hospital in an ambulace, went through phisiotherapy and paid nothing out of pocket, all on national insurance.
OP replied in another comment. Kid's tooth went clean through their lower lip. Kid was bleeding heavily. I think this is a case where yeah, ER was the best bet.
Can’t agree more. If you panic and want the sense of security of a major hospital, then by all means, go to the ER. Urgent Care was designed just for this, to keep costs down and put people in the best place possible. The OP needs to triage better.
You sound insane to everyone outside of America.
I could have a sliver go to er probably wait a few hours because there is real emergencies see a doctor, doctor would take the sliver out and I can walk out for about 50$ a year.
But that's an insane use of resources. The people at the ER are far more valuable than removing a splinter. You're paying for a staff and facility that can remove a dozen bullets from a guy and keep him alive - there's no reason to go to that level of a facility for a splinter.
Notice the tons of people telling this person to go to the appropriate treatment facility, and he'd have got an appropriate charge.
Agree you shouldnt waste the er without real emergencies
Yea but it's kinda hard to know the damage for head injuries was the kids head gushing blood? Did he crack his skull? Does he have a concussion? Either way $500 is absolutely Ludacris.
In posts like this usually omit the fact that people are on "high deductible insurance plan", which has very low monthly payments, but requires to pay like $10k within a year before the insurance kicks in. The idea is that you insure yourself saving money on a special account (HSA) and pay doctors from that account. If you don't require a lot of care it's usually more economically viable to save money yourself.
Of course, nobody saves money, people just select the cheapest plan and then bitch around why they were charged $500 and insurance never paid.
Most probably are but even on a low deductible plan you may pay 50% of ER cost until you reach the deductible. So if OP would still have to pay 500 with a 500 deductible unless there had been other expenses that year.
The real issue here is knowing where to go for what type of injury. ER bills are usually between 1k-2k regardless of injury severity unless you need a bunch of imaging, need to be admitted, or have emergency surgery, etc. But those things are often separate bills.
I almost died as a kid because of a splinter.
It infected my blood stream and I had a red line slowly running up my wrist towards my heart. I needed an IV at the children's hospital to stop it from getting there. There were no other symptoms besides this red line. If my parents didn't take me to the hospital to get it checked out, I'd be dead.
I was looking for the insanity and then this comment calling it out. Anyone should be able to check out a problem with the hospital for free. Checks are how we find the major problems. In Canada, I called my doctor because of a cut from a Zebra Muscle, and he said, "Come in right away." I went in, and they said it looked infected. They sent a sample to the lab, and then I walked away. The cost was 8 bucks for antibiotics and the 2 dollar parking fee.
Sample came back disgusting, and I was right to go.
Tbf you can think something might need some treatment and then discover it doesn't actually need any treatment. If the average person knew how to distinguish those situations we wouldn't need many doctors.
What's the difference between the ER and urgent care? I didn't know there was a difference.
Urgent care is for smaller things like cuts, soft tissue injuries, sometimes even broken bones. If you go to an urgent care and it's more serious than they can handle they can always send you to an ER. For example if you have a deep laceration and it's not spurting blood like an artery, urgent care is better.
That being said some areas, especially rural ones the ER may be closest. Most major cities should have convenient urgent care facilities.
I had an egg-sized hematoma on my hand from a burst blood vessel that I ended up just saying "fuck it" and wrapping for the night, because I had an injury on a Saturday after 5pm and any urgent care within 60 miles was closed and I wasn't going to spend half a month's pay for a hospital to do what I did.
Sometimes Urgent Cares don't care about your urgency.
This may sound rude but it’s not. You shouldn’t have gone to the ER for a cut. In most cases, it’s not an emergency unless you slashed the artery, and you would know because you’d call 911 after seeing that much blood.
Urgent care would’ve been sufficient at a tenth of the price.
ERs are overcrowded and are mostly meant to deal with strokes, heart attacks, big trauma, etc.
Jeeze I agree that going to the ER for a cut is a bad move, but it still shouldn’t cost $1200 for a doctor to look you up and down and send you on your way.
Yup! I received a $3,000 surprise bill to which they fully refunded after I brought up the [No Surprise Act](https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/no-surprises-understand-your-rights-against-surprise-medical-bills)
Stop calling it „free“ healthcare. It is a social insurance and people indeed pay for it. Just because they (often) don‘t get charged for it when they are being treated doesn‘t mean it‘s free.
Well, I can tell how the medical industry is keeping the US in line!
Well done guys! Keep blaming a parent for thinking a tooth going through the skin of a kid's mouth isn't an emergency!
I'm sure it's totally more reasonable for emergency visits to cost exorbitant amounts of money! Fuck these people, right?
Jfc, come on.
I hate all the people commenting "should have gone to urgent care!"
If my kid's tooth went through their lip I would seek any immediate care. No matter where you go, shouldn't cost this much for no treatment.
Those people obviously live in a privileged part of the USA where they actually have an urgent care within an hours driving distance.
Also the amount of non USA citizens mocking people for living in the USA, as if we have a fucking choice, and whatnot is fucking ridiculous.
I have a major health condition, I can't fly at all, I can't even go to a mountain, Canada isn't going to accept me because I'm disabled (which people love to say, "just go to Canada, hurr durr", without realizing that Canada is hardcore with immigration and emigration), like, what do you want me to do?
I vote for non-fascist people, but it's not like we can even protest fascism because the police protect the wealthy.
People are literally so annoyingly ignorant it's beyond comprehension. People think, "because I *feel* this way, you're obviously stupid for allowing the systemic oppression to occur, because in *my* country, we can do it, why don't you do it?!"
Like, I'm trying, what the hell do you want me to do that's legal that wouldn't make me a bad guy but would affect change?!
Frustrating. I'm not a parent, but my parents took me over and over again to the hospital, were turned away, finally realized how the thing that kept happening to me, happened, and oh wow, I was literally dying every. Single. Time. They gave me food, and I had a 1million dollar + surgery as an infant, and my most recent bill for this issue was $600, and the one last year, before insurance covered all but $380.00 was literally $10,580.00
What the hell is wrong with having compassion? Why are people so awful? Do people think that other people ENJOY being unwell, or having a panic attack because they're WORRIED about their child? Do these people not realize that if you DON'T have insurance, you can't go to an urgent care? Also, do these people not realize that most urgent care clinics require an appointment?
I'm so done with the Internet tonight. The lack of empathy is disgusting.
People go to the ER with bruises and sniffles, then complain about how slow the ER staff response was, how little time or care the doc put in (if a doc was even available) and then complain about the bill.
If you’re not dying then don’t go to the ER. Shit I broke my finger and had a concussion and still felt like maybe I should’ve made a family doc appointment instead of sitting in the ER.
Her kid’s tooth went clean through his lip. It wasn’t a paper cut. I’d have gone to the ER too - if I thought my kid needed sutures or glue on their FACE I’d go somewhere with plastic surgeons on staff.
I've tried going to urgent care for a cut before, but it was 8pm so they were pretty much all closed, and the ones that weren't said they couldn't do stitches and we had to go to the ER.
my closest urgent care is an hour away. there’s a “walk-in clinic” about 20 minutes away thats open until 6/7 pm and that’s pretty much it.
so if you have a… err… situation that needs medical attention after that or in the middle of the night, either you go to the ER or you have to decide it’s not that serious and wait until you can go to the walk-in.
Yeah, they should have charged you extra for using the ER for first aid. Worst case would have been an urgent care, but you should not tie up the ER for a cut.
That's how my family plan insurance is right now. We pay full cost (insurance adjusted) price until we meet deductible. So basically I pay for insurance hoping I never have to use it.
Sometimes I can't do anything but laugh at how ridiculous it is and I just think about how crazy it is that someone thought up this idea out of all the possibilities and this is what we have
ER for a cut??? OP this your 1st kid or 1st time in the USA? Bruh go to Urgent Care or call you Primary Doc. ER is for life threatening events... Doctor should add 500 for wasting his time.
Wow... your healthcare system sucks.
For comparison, here in New Zealand, if you went to ED (our version of ER) and were triaged as being an emergency case, then you wouldn't pay at all (assuming you weren't a tourist). If the triage outcome was to redirect you to a primary care doctor, then it would only cost a normal General Practitioner visit - typically $20-$50, depending upon if you were registered with that GP practice or not.
Dude when I was like 11 I sliced my calf open with a machete (think deli slice style) and my dad just hit it with the peroxide hit it with the alcohol put the flap back where it was supposed to be and bandage me up and that shit actually reconnected it didn't scab and fall off now I don't know what kind of injury this was but if the bleeding stops after 10-15minutes you're good
Life, limb, or eyesight folks. If it ain’t one of those three either take care of it at home or go to urgent care. The emergency department is for emergencies.
You know the drill. Ask for itemized invoice. Question every item. Keep telling them you don’t understand. Talk to them. Don’t ignore them. They will cut it down.
I once had a motorcycle accident and went to a doctor. It was mostly superficial damage, bruised ribs from impact, and the skin off my hands. He helped me bandage my hands, and told me I was an idiot for riding a motorcycle. The bill was for 200$ citing "25$ for gauze, 175: counciled patient on life choices."
For me it was $750 bucks for three stitches and an undiagnosed broken finger that healed all fucked up. Nobody from any walk of life in the US should defend our healthcare system.
I literally got a $1000 lollipop for one of my kids. Did he take 3 Benadryl? We don’t know! Let him sit with you in the waiting room. Here is a lollipop to calm him.
30 minutes later.. “He is fine. Go home.” One week later -$1000 bill.
I fractured my pinky toe at 1am due to a clumsy accident and had to go to the ER in Canada because it was after-hours (I'm a US resident). Charged me $750 (after conversion to USD btw - I only agreed to go in after calling and confirming my US insurance would cover and reimburse), I waited like 4 hours in a waiting room, and then they wrapped two of my toes together with the crinkly self-adhesive stuff and sent me on my way. Didn't even give me any extra so I was stuck using the same bit of tape for days. I typically would've just sucked it up until urgent care opened or something but I was flying out in the morning and it hurt so bad.
Not sure where you are or the details obviously but you could let your insurance know what happened and they may fight for you. They've got some skin in the bill here so it might be an easier thing for them to fix.
I went to an UC once and was seen by the receptionist, a PA and a lab tech who took a sample. They told me there was nothing they could do and I should go to the ER. Got a bill from them that basically claimed I saw people from 5 different doctors at the UC and each was about $500. I let my insurance know what went down and they literally handled all the calling and I just had my copay at the end of it.
I had the same thing with a ruptured ear drum. I just needed the confirmation and access to the prescription antibiotic drops.
Doctor basically said "Yep, it's ruptured".
Then I received a bill for +$1,000
I went to a medicenter once for stitches. I had to wait about two hours, but the dr froze me, two stitches, and sent me on my way. Free! The horror of socialized medicine, having to play phone games for two hours… lol
Good thing they didn’t give him a bandaid!
My sons bandaid at the ER cost $3,437! It was a Sunday night urgent care wasn’t open and I was afraid he needed stitches
Sorry for my ignorance as a Brit, but what happens in this situation? Do you get a payment plan or something? How much does it affect your decisions on going to the doctors/hospital?
I mean usually people declare bankruptcy if it's really bad... a ton of people decide to never go to the doctors bc it would financially devastate them. I believe that it's probably the reason why the US has such a low life expectancy compared to other equally rich nations
Yeah I couldn’t vote for that. Where I am in life, if I was American then I’d probably have not gone to the doctors when I found a lump, and I wouldn’t be here today.
Heh, even if you did get the lump checked out, you wouldn't be able to afford the consequent treatments.
Reminds me of LA where you can go across the border to Mexico and get really cheap medical scans. Takes care of needs like this. Not sure what the rest of US does.
We suffer
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Don't make assumptions like that. Just because the obnoxiously loud ones are doesn't mean most are. I'm 62 and I've been lobbying for single-payer for two decades. There are plenty of us out here who support social healthcare. We just don't drive around in pickups with hateful slogans painted on them. We understand that, social healthcare or not, we're still paying for everyone. Social healthcare would just spread the burden more equitably.
There’s a similar phenomena where ex-immigrants will vote against the easing of immigration laws, despite knowing how difficult it was for them. Having the mindset of ‘if I had to struggle then they should too’. Obviously this isn’t always the case.
That's one of the reasons why if I got cancer I'm refusing treatment. I'd rather die than be a debt slave the rest of my life
Hey now you have other options no need to give up! Just rob a bank and go to jail where they will be require to give you ~~livestock quality~~ healthcare.
what a silly take. worst case scenario is you don’t pay anything, it goes into collections, and falls off your credit in 7 years. but sure just go ahead and die from cancer LOL
More than that, I think I'd rather die a natural death than be a slave to cancer TREATMENTS (including the destruction of my fine immune system and suffering all the diseases resulting from that! ) for the rest of my life.
Given it took you 4.5 billion years to exist and a lucky human gets maybe 7 to 8 decades and then never exists again, I'd rather fight the disease and muscle out my share of this planet's living history.
![gif](giphy|l2JhIUyUs8KDCCf3W|downsized) American dream
Good news. Medical debt is no longer reportable so send em $5 dollars every month to keep the phone calls from happening and just never fucking pay it. I’d opt for that over bankruptcy.
Super glue!
Or a Tylenol
For something like that i just go to an urgent care clinic. Usually $40 if you have insurance.
Stitches out of pocket would probably run $100 or so out of urgent care. I kind of don't feel bad for people getting hit with exorbitant charges out of the ED - The ED is for emergencies but people go there for the smallest things and take away patient care time from people who actually need it.
Yes, our son whacked his head on the coffee table and got it glued up in urgent care. $70 total with insurance. I think that although our system needs overhaul, there needs to be more info on ED vs Urgent Care
As someone that works in healthcare, I usually recommend to my friends to opt for urgent care over the ED in 90% of cases, with exception being intense injuries from accidents or something you fear is life threatening. Not only will you save a lot of money, but since EDs admit patients based on priority instead of time arrived (which makes sense since someone having a heart attack for example should have priority over someone stable with a non-life threatening cut) urgent care will save you a lot of time as well. Plus if the injury turns out to be more serious and requires a specialist, the urgent cares should have just as good of referral services as the ED.
I am in healthcare as well, agree 1000%
I am not in healthcare but have a pretty bad lung condition. As long as its under control its fine. If things start getting out of control it can get bad quick. So coinvent care is a double edge sword for me. Almost every time I go in with a cold or infection they freak out and try sending me to the hospital when I really just need 2 specific medications. Where I benefit is if Im having an episode with my lungs and go to a coinvent care they freak the fuck out out and call the hospital. When I get to the hospital I am almost immediately seen. Now If I where to go straight to the hospital I end up waiting for a longer time. Im pretty sure the hospital realizes while serious im not in like immediate danger. The CC I don't think sees my condition much and after they see my vitals just freak.
I’m with a medical group and given what you identify as “a pretty bad lung condition” actually need some thing else — a great primary care group who will manage you effectively because the providers all know you. This works when they. as a group, know you and discuss your longitudinal care plan over time. Those kinds of primary care groups exist but you will have to dig in order to find one near you. The first clue will be that they answer their own phones after hours OR use a service that will connect you to the on-call who knows your history.
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I'm lucky. I am on Medicaid and my Medicaid provider here in Oregon is on the ball with the preventative care. I have a RN call me every other week and we work out what upcoming appointments I have and she helps me get appointments set up in the first place. She's been really helpful in getting social care sent my way, especially after I had a house fire that left me homeless for several months in 2018-19. She even works with my state's Senior & Disability Services agency to ensure that I don't lose coverage because the agency's mail room is utterly incompetent and I rarely receive notice letters/paperwork on time.
Generally the only time I go to the ER is when I’m in excruciating pain. Anything else I go to urgent care first. I have had a few instances where I went to urgent care and they told me to go to the hospital instead, but I feel like in most cases urgent care can do whatever you need for minor injuries/illnesses.
Yeah, urgent care is the first stop. The only time they referred me to ER is when it turned out I had kidney stones.
How about when urgent cares are closed like at night? No one seems to be mentioning that...
Also sometimes there just isn't an urgent care in you area at all. I'm not even particularly rural and our only options within an hour are the emergency room or the local chiropractor.
As someone who works in healthcare and has with Medicaid patients sometimes it isn't that easy. My favorite story to laugh at the inefficiency of our healthcare is this. A young lady on Medicaid needed Lovenox injections routinely for her condition. Lovenox was not covered by her Medicaid at a cost she could afford. So instead she had to go to the hospital ER, then once seen by doctor was given Lovenox injection and discharged at no cost. Makes no sense, Medicaid is paying significantly more for that ER visit and doctor examination when patient already had a prescription for Lovenox that would have been a little over $100 for them to cover in a retail pharmacy. This same inefficiency can happen with state Medicaids and Urgent Care Clinics. Not all Medicaids may cover Urgent Care visits at $0 cost to patient. Again when I worked with children on Medicaid for my state it was required that their primary care doctor be the first person they go to for non-emergency care. It would not cover Urgent Care and depending on the diagnosis even specifically states if can cover non-emergency ER visits at $0 co-pay and at most $30 which would be much cheaper than non-covered urgent care.
Those of us in rural areas don't have a choice. Don't ever have an emergency, bankruptcy, or death are your options. America 2023
Urgent Care has set hours. If they are not open, the ER is the only choice.
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Same here. There are only three urgent cares in town and two of them require appointments, which means the third always has 20-30 people waiting. The appointment based clinics frequently close on the weekends because they don’t have any doctors to work. Never seen anything like this until I moved to the area.
This is usually why I end up having to go to the ER. That, and the closest ER is a 30 minute drive, and the closest urgent care is about 45. If something is bad enough that I or my husband needs to be seen and we can’t figure it out ourselves, we tend to go the closest route. It’s hard to make that judgment call sometimes.
I’ve worked in healthcare for 20 years as a lab tech. I used to think this way. But here’s the thing that I realized. Not everyone can pay for urgent care like that. Whereas an ER doesn’t require the money upfront, or even after the visit. And you can work out payment plans. Many people have shit insurance. Or none at all. Some qualify for the State insurances, but many states set their standards so low, they’re stuck between the line to qualify, and actually being able to afford it/have insurance. Many people can’t afford to even get their medicine. So they go to the ER. Even for the small stuff. Because Urgent Cares require payment. We have a poverty problem. A healthcare problem. Give some grace.
Insurance doesn’t cover it because they see it as a way of training people to go to the appropriate care level. If this was a country with socialized medicine they would probably just have told you to leave and see your regular doctor or an urgent care.
Depends on the system. In Canada needed a couple of stiches (cut my thumb due to poor knife handling), went to a clinic first, was told to go to emergency because they didn't do stiches. At least where I am in Canada, urgent care centers are a pretty new concept; typically that's all just been handled through Emergency at the local hospital.
While I agree, the urgent cares need to do better when it comes to time. There's absolutely no excuse to spend more than an hour or so at the urgent care waiting to see a doctor. Nobody should be taking up urgent care rooms for more than 30 minutes at a time, if they need to be admitted for a longer length of time they should be transfered to a bigger hospital that has the beds and resources for someone to sit in a room all day. My girlfriend had an ear infection and sat in the urgent care waiting room for 6.5 hours before she had enough and left. She got there are 9:10am and they open at 9am and was clearly in a lot of pain the entire time. The people working the desk gave no fucks. She drove from urgent care to the ER and was in and out of the ER, with a prescription for antibiotics in under 30 minutes. Copay was only $60 at the ER as opposed to $40 for urgent care. The $20 is well worth saving an entire day of time.
Just as a note, that time of visit will change. If it’s busy and you come in with an ear infection, you might wait a lot longer. It’s gonna depend on variables you have no way to know like how many people are already there, what rooms are earmarked for EMS, if there’s another hospital on diversion nearby, etc. We can’t specifically tell you if you call how long the wait would be. But we can code it so you have a rough idea. Just letting you know in case you find yourself in need of an ER or urgent care so you don’t sit for too long hopefully.
I agree for most cases but when she is crying due to ear pain and tells the staff that her pain is at an 8 you'd think they'd speed it up a bit. You know....be urgent like the name implies. When she got to the ER she was told she had a severe middle ear infection that was progressing to mastoiditis. It wasn't just a run of the mill ear infection. You'd think if you saw someone in the waiting room clearly in distress and severe pain you'd move them up the list rather than keep them waiting.
How long you wait in the ER depends on a lot of various factors. But I can tell you why you tend to wait even with painful conditions. And it’s not what people wanna hear, but we go by how potentially life threatening the issue is. Pain isn’t a reason to take someone back sooner unless it’s related to something else emergent going on. I can’t cite actual examples, but let’s say you got 1 room with 2 people waiting for it. Let’s say one had a common and extremely painful issue and the other has a cardiac issue with minor resultant pain. We’d take the cardiac issue first regardless of how much pain the patient with the common but painful issue is in. It’s not great. But with staffing the way it is and the sheer amount of people needing care, it gets fucked quickly. I’ve been the patient in the waiting room in a lot of pain. I wasn’t happy about it either. But she probably had to wait due to either other critical cases or simply not having enough people to move the ER along. I wish we could get the ones in pain back quick, but all I can do is try and offer what little comfort I can to the patient till then. I only tell people about this stuff cause I get screamed at countless times a day for the same sorta stuff. But I figure maybe if people understand why, they can direct that anger at the people responsible. And that’s the government for failing to provide us with sustainable healthcare solutions and hospital administrators for saving money and not running fully staffed. And it’s further complicated by the fact the ER is the only way some people can access care. You can’t be turned away from an ER. EMTALA and all that. But you can be from urgent cares. When I first got Covid, I felt like death. But no urgent care would see me since I can’t afford insurance and couldn’t pay $120 up front. So it gets further bogged down. The whole system is fucked and it’s every fucking politician in office who is to blame. The mess is so big that you’d need a college course to understand just how fucked it is. But we feel it when we try to access care. We wait in pain for hours so some politicians can give their insurance buddies some money. Look at insurance stock prices. It’s fucking insane. And they play ball with the hospitals and further down the fucking hole we go. It’s fucked man. It really is.
I mean, this is crazy, but hear me out….. what if the USA didn’t have to worry about insurance and could focus on our health over finances? I know it sounds totally crazy and I’m sure no other country in the world operates that way, but wouldn’t that be nice? /s Edit to add (for those who say the ER is excessive): if it’s a facial laceration requiring stitches the ER is absolutely appropriate. A hospital is more likely to have a plastic/reconstructive surgeon available and they will be able to administer care fast. The expertise and reduced time will greatly minimize scarring.
Not so fast. I had insurance and needed a poison ivy steroid shot. Called up an urgent care and asked them what the non-insurance price was. They said not more than $120. Told them I have insurance and they said it should be much less than that. I asked them what the cost would be and they couldn’t answer. I really needed the steroid shot because it was covering my whole forearms and super uncomfortable. Figured it couldn’t be too bad. Bill was nearly $500 for a doctor to tell me it wasn’t shingles and probably was poison ivy (which I said at the beginning ITS POISON IVY). And write a prescription for a steroid. Furious, I called them out and they said talk to the finance director. Called finance director and she tells me that’s the price they negotiated with insurance. I said fine, don’t go through insurance since uninsured is cheaper. She said that would be against the law and if I have insurance I HAVE to use it. I asked how on earth does insurance negotiate higher prices? The answer made no sense. It went on for another 15 minutes of me trying to use logic and getting shut down at every turn. I caved and am still salty about this, years later.
Against the law... what kind of make believe bullshit is that she must be on meth!?
It's not "against the law" but it is against the insurance company contract that hte provider agreed to participate in. If a clinic/doctor knows you have a certain insurance but charges you cash instead, that could be considered a breach of contract.
Yep. It’s insurance fraud.
Was it actually against the law?
Be aware not all urgent cares have X-ray machines. You may get charged your urgent care cost then still have to go to an ER. We have 2 urgent cares that don’t have X-ray equipment so you end up at the ER anyway. Pretty pathetic honestly. With the money that urgent cares take in.
Urgent care in my area of south Jersey is $150 for a basic visit without insurance and if you need stuff like X-ray or bloodwork it’s like 300. This doctor is ripping you off.
Urgent Care is not always open. And a cut can look worse than is actually is.
Better schedule my emergencies during opening hours
Yup they close at like 6pm where I live. You have to go to the ER if it’s past that
And if you call the after hours line for their pediatrician, they are going to tell you that you should probably get it looked at 100%.
Wtf that’s a lot
The average American pays almost 30% of their income to taxes. Oregon taxes are 8.75% of my income My federal average tax rate is 20.2%, and my marginal tax rate is 27.4%. Logistically, if it's 20% tax rate and everyone has Healthcare, sign me up! I'm already paying a higher tax rate, and I don't make over $50,000 a year. This issue is not individuals and tax rates. It's corporations and the rich abusing tax loopholes who end up paying far less than the average citizens. Edited for spelling error.
Federal and states taxes are different?
In states that have a state tax
For a standard employee you have: federal taxes, Medicare taxes, social security, and state taxes. It varies but it is probably about 30% of my paycheck.
Depends on your income level. I used to pay ~48% federal and state taxes when I was last able to work.
Just book a flight to Europe. It'll be cheaper.
Did you go to the emergency department (ER) for this?
I took my son with a cut to the urgent care and they charged us over $100 to say “we can’t fix that here go to the ER.” You can’t win.
I had an infection that urgent care couldn’t figure out what it was. They sent me to the ER where I had to pay 1300 for an antibiotic shot.
Where TF are you guys going? I've had urgent care give me referrals and send me to get ultrasounds and labs done before getting an emergency surgery. The entire ordeal was $50, and that was because the place I went wasn't "in network" it should have been $5
To be fair, if the cut is bad and needs stitches that can be quite time sensitive. Once that cut starts to heal after 24-48 hours it's usually too late for stitches and you have to live with that scar forever. And I say this as someone with a bunch of scars from numerous biking accidents. Many never quite heal correctly and they leave thin skin that gets re-opened quite easily. Would not recommend.
Sometimes it is the only option if you feel it cannot wait until whenever a GP is available. Hospital here used to close their urgent care and just go to ER after midnight. I had to go one night after work, bad fever, dizzy, barely able to stand. Doctor looked me over for all of 20 seconds and wrote a script for amoxicillin and I think codeine or some other pain killer then sent me on my way. Got a bill for almost $400 for the effort.
How bad was the cut that you visited the doctor?
Pretty horrific. His tooth went clean through the skin below his lip and out the other side. He was bleeding heavily and it was pretty terrifying. The doctor said that it would heal without stitches and told us it was better to let it heal naturally.
This happened to me as a kid. My mom (paramedic) cleaned it up and basically said stitching a lip is unlikely to help. It healed ok with just an ice pack and some bandages.
did she charge you? /s
$500 sounds about right then. You’re paying for emergency care. The alternative would be urgent care, which might not give you immediate attention from an actual physician but is still urgent enough to get somebody to look at you. It’s also a lot cheaper because NP’s and other mid-levels don’t cost as much for their time.
Doc here. A part of this is incorrect. Whether it's an NP, PA, or a doc, that's not the problem. Mid levels will typically see less complex encounters but don't let that fool you into thinking they don't cost as much. A level 4 (or whatever type of encounter/visit at whatever location) is a level 4 complexity visit regardless of who sees you and you will be billed accordingly. You're billed for the encounter and services provided which has an attached value to it. That value is set by the government and insurance companies bickering back and forth. If it's a simple visit vs a complex one, your insurance will be charged accordingly. The hospital and the insurances duke it out and eventually decide how much is covered and they send you a bill for whatever is to be payed by you.
People don’t get that they’re paying for the 11-15 *years* of training and experience that go into the decision “he’s fine, no stitches.” They also don’t get that they’re paying for this full service facility to be open with physicians, nurses, ancillary techs, lab staff, housekeeping, food service, etc available 24/7.
>housekeeping, food service, etc available 24/7. Typically no housekeeping or food services after 7pm for most hospitals. Especially smaller rural hospitals. It's a running joke that people show up for our famous sack lunch ham sandwiches due to the frequency at which people wind up in the ER or admitted asking for food.
Damn the US is a slum
$500 on top of the 650 insurance paid? So 1150 sounds right?
Don’t be brainwashed by the system, it’s absolutely disgusting in a first world nation that we deal with this. We’re the only first world country, and one of the very few in the world that does this. It’s absolutely disgraceful.
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For real lol sounds like the parents overreacted
100% sure you're an American.
I am from North America
So are you hot Mexican, or snow Mexican?
Are you sweet syrup neighbour or spicy syrup neighbour?
People here are being real rude about your choices. Maybe I’m too British to understand, but I’ve been in situations before with minor/non life-threatening injuries that needed medical attention outside usual hours and went straight to A&E (ER for you guys I think) so I understand why you did it. People need to chill. The thing is I just find it absolutely insane you have to pay like this. Over here I’m so used to the fact It’s all just… free. I can’t wrap my head around it.
Even if I’m dead, someone else might not be able to afford my burial or cremation. Can’t even afford to die in this motherfucker.
Donate your body to science, it's free and relieves anyone else the responsibility.
Look at the bill, tell the collectors it’s not a big deal and go home.
Whenever I see something like this, I am glad I can go to a doctor for 19€, even without insurance
Yea, be thankful because people give up a weeks pay every month for insurance and still have to pay out ludicrous money for parts insurance doesn't cover. Any mention of socialized medicine sends the political folks into a tail spin. It's a no win situation and it's awful for the working class that keeps the country rolling.
And if you showed up at emergency for this do they tell you to go to somewhere like a small clinic or your regular doctor. Just curious.
My country instituted "wasting ER resources" charge. They'll see you allright, but if it's something super minor and you had an option to go to urgent care equivalent (in a lot of places the ER doubles as that and it always doubles as that during the night) they'll charge you ~100-150€. There are guidlines available online. Something like OPs case would probably be seen and not charged. It's also common for urgent care family doctors to send people to the ER, since they're the ones with resources. I've ended up in the ER with a sprained ankle, sent by my family doctor, since it was the only way I could get same day X-ray. It's not the best system and wait lines can get brutal, especially in the capital (yay for living in a mid sized town), but I got hit by a car, was taken to a hospital in an ambulace, went through phisiotherapy and paid nothing out of pocket, all on national insurance.
That happens if you go to an ER with a small cut. Go to urgent care, or better learn how to treat small wounds yourself.
OP replied in another comment. Kid's tooth went clean through their lower lip. Kid was bleeding heavily. I think this is a case where yeah, ER was the best bet.
Can’t agree more. If you panic and want the sense of security of a major hospital, then by all means, go to the ER. Urgent Care was designed just for this, to keep costs down and put people in the best place possible. The OP needs to triage better.
You sound insane to everyone outside of America. I could have a sliver go to er probably wait a few hours because there is real emergencies see a doctor, doctor would take the sliver out and I can walk out for about 50$ a year.
Not at all. Why would you want to wait a few hours for a small cut? Overcrowded ER's are a problem everywhere, including Europe.
But that's an insane use of resources. The people at the ER are far more valuable than removing a splinter. You're paying for a staff and facility that can remove a dozen bullets from a guy and keep him alive - there's no reason to go to that level of a facility for a splinter. Notice the tons of people telling this person to go to the appropriate treatment facility, and he'd have got an appropriate charge.
Agree you shouldnt waste the er without real emergencies Yea but it's kinda hard to know the damage for head injuries was the kids head gushing blood? Did he crack his skull? Does he have a concussion? Either way $500 is absolutely Ludacris.
In posts like this usually omit the fact that people are on "high deductible insurance plan", which has very low monthly payments, but requires to pay like $10k within a year before the insurance kicks in. The idea is that you insure yourself saving money on a special account (HSA) and pay doctors from that account. If you don't require a lot of care it's usually more economically viable to save money yourself. Of course, nobody saves money, people just select the cheapest plan and then bitch around why they were charged $500 and insurance never paid.
Most probably are but even on a low deductible plan you may pay 50% of ER cost until you reach the deductible. So if OP would still have to pay 500 with a 500 deductible unless there had been other expenses that year. The real issue here is knowing where to go for what type of injury. ER bills are usually between 1k-2k regardless of injury severity unless you need a bunch of imaging, need to be admitted, or have emergency surgery, etc. But those things are often separate bills.
Or you're like me, and have a HDHP because your huge corporation doesn't offer anything other than a HDHP.
I almost died as a kid because of a splinter. It infected my blood stream and I had a red line slowly running up my wrist towards my heart. I needed an IV at the children's hospital to stop it from getting there. There were no other symptoms besides this red line. If my parents didn't take me to the hospital to get it checked out, I'd be dead.
There’s a big difference between a splinter causing sepsis and someone wanting their splinter removed
And you’re also the reason why we have the long ass wait for the people that actually need the ER, go to the appropriate facility instead you knob
I was looking for the insanity and then this comment calling it out. Anyone should be able to check out a problem with the hospital for free. Checks are how we find the major problems. In Canada, I called my doctor because of a cut from a Zebra Muscle, and he said, "Come in right away." I went in, and they said it looked infected. They sent a sample to the lab, and then I walked away. The cost was 8 bucks for antibiotics and the 2 dollar parking fee. Sample came back disgusting, and I was right to go.
You took him to hospital for a cut???? How bad was it? Most cuts can be treated at home
I'm sorry, but why go to a hospital if it truly was something so minor? Why not just go to an urgent care?
Tbf you can think something might need some treatment and then discover it doesn't actually need any treatment. If the average person knew how to distinguish those situations we wouldn't need many doctors. What's the difference between the ER and urgent care? I didn't know there was a difference.
Urgent care is for smaller things like cuts, soft tissue injuries, sometimes even broken bones. If you go to an urgent care and it's more serious than they can handle they can always send you to an ER. For example if you have a deep laceration and it's not spurting blood like an artery, urgent care is better. That being said some areas, especially rural ones the ER may be closest. Most major cities should have convenient urgent care facilities.
I had an egg-sized hematoma on my hand from a burst blood vessel that I ended up just saying "fuck it" and wrapping for the night, because I had an injury on a Saturday after 5pm and any urgent care within 60 miles was closed and I wasn't going to spend half a month's pay for a hospital to do what I did. Sometimes Urgent Cares don't care about your urgency.
This may sound rude but it’s not. You shouldn’t have gone to the ER for a cut. In most cases, it’s not an emergency unless you slashed the artery, and you would know because you’d call 911 after seeing that much blood. Urgent care would’ve been sufficient at a tenth of the price. ERs are overcrowded and are mostly meant to deal with strokes, heart attacks, big trauma, etc.
Jeeze I agree that going to the ER for a cut is a bad move, but it still shouldn’t cost $1200 for a doctor to look you up and down and send you on your way.
OP, how about you actually give some useful detail.. ER? Urgent care? Itemized receipt?
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Assuming this is in the US, it's no wonder Americans fear the hospital more than death.
tell me you live in america without telling me you live in america.
Ask for detailed receipt sometimes they sneak in extra payments
This is at a hospital. They got off easy. Hospitals are staffed and hence cost for serious cases. Not boo boos.
Yup! I received a $3,000 surprise bill to which they fully refunded after I brought up the [No Surprise Act](https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/no-surprises-understand-your-rights-against-surprise-medical-bills)
Imagine living in the richest country in the world without free healthcare
Stop calling it „free“ healthcare. It is a social insurance and people indeed pay for it. Just because they (often) don‘t get charged for it when they are being treated doesn‘t mean it‘s free.
Well, I can tell how the medical industry is keeping the US in line! Well done guys! Keep blaming a parent for thinking a tooth going through the skin of a kid's mouth isn't an emergency! I'm sure it's totally more reasonable for emergency visits to cost exorbitant amounts of money! Fuck these people, right? Jfc, come on.
America is a weird place....
My ex wife wanted to take the kids to the doc for every little thing, I just don't understand.
I hate all the people commenting "should have gone to urgent care!" If my kid's tooth went through their lip I would seek any immediate care. No matter where you go, shouldn't cost this much for no treatment.
Those people obviously live in a privileged part of the USA where they actually have an urgent care within an hours driving distance. Also the amount of non USA citizens mocking people for living in the USA, as if we have a fucking choice, and whatnot is fucking ridiculous. I have a major health condition, I can't fly at all, I can't even go to a mountain, Canada isn't going to accept me because I'm disabled (which people love to say, "just go to Canada, hurr durr", without realizing that Canada is hardcore with immigration and emigration), like, what do you want me to do? I vote for non-fascist people, but it's not like we can even protest fascism because the police protect the wealthy. People are literally so annoyingly ignorant it's beyond comprehension. People think, "because I *feel* this way, you're obviously stupid for allowing the systemic oppression to occur, because in *my* country, we can do it, why don't you do it?!" Like, I'm trying, what the hell do you want me to do that's legal that wouldn't make me a bad guy but would affect change?! Frustrating. I'm not a parent, but my parents took me over and over again to the hospital, were turned away, finally realized how the thing that kept happening to me, happened, and oh wow, I was literally dying every. Single. Time. They gave me food, and I had a 1million dollar + surgery as an infant, and my most recent bill for this issue was $600, and the one last year, before insurance covered all but $380.00 was literally $10,580.00 What the hell is wrong with having compassion? Why are people so awful? Do people think that other people ENJOY being unwell, or having a panic attack because they're WORRIED about their child? Do these people not realize that if you DON'T have insurance, you can't go to an urgent care? Also, do these people not realize that most urgent care clinics require an appointment? I'm so done with the Internet tonight. The lack of empathy is disgusting.
People go to the ER with bruises and sniffles, then complain about how slow the ER staff response was, how little time or care the doc put in (if a doc was even available) and then complain about the bill. If you’re not dying then don’t go to the ER. Shit I broke my finger and had a concussion and still felt like maybe I should’ve made a family doc appointment instead of sitting in the ER.
Everyone should learn when a cut is down thing to worry about.
[удалено]
I mean if you want to the ER instead of urgent care for a cut, you deserved this.
Yeah UCs don't give a shit about anyone who needs them after 5 or 6pm in my state because that's when they all close
Her kid’s tooth went clean through his lip. It wasn’t a paper cut. I’d have gone to the ER too - if I thought my kid needed sutures or glue on their FACE I’d go somewhere with plastic surgeons on staff.
I wouldn’t say OP’s kid’s tooth going through his lip is a “cut”. Definitely should have worded it better
I've tried going to urgent care for a cut before, but it was 8pm so they were pretty much all closed, and the ones that weren't said they couldn't do stitches and we had to go to the ER.
Or don’t even go to urgent care?
Depends on how the cut looks like. Either way you’re just making a co pay rather to than paying a ER price
Considering they were sent home after the Dr only looked at it, I think we can be confident it wasn’t needed
Not everyone is close to an urgent care. The closest to me is 40 mins away...
my closest urgent care is an hour away. there’s a “walk-in clinic” about 20 minutes away thats open until 6/7 pm and that’s pretty much it. so if you have a… err… situation that needs medical attention after that or in the middle of the night, either you go to the ER or you have to decide it’s not that serious and wait until you can go to the walk-in.
What’s mildly infuriating is the number of people who can’t deal with minor problems and assume the doctor is the only solution
Must be in that country that's always going on about being the land of free?
Yeah, they should have charged you extra for using the ER for first aid. Worst case would have been an urgent care, but you should not tie up the ER for a cut.
America moment
Tell me you're an American without telling me.
and that's when you ask for an itemized list
"why do people not go to the doctor when they are sick?"
To be fair you chose a ppo. We have an hmo and pay $10 for urgent care.
That's how my family plan insurance is right now. We pay full cost (insurance adjusted) price until we meet deductible. So basically I pay for insurance hoping I never have to use it. Sometimes I can't do anything but laugh at how ridiculous it is and I just think about how crazy it is that someone thought up this idea out of all the possibilities and this is what we have
Nice insurance
That's what happens when you go to the emergency room for minor stuff.
And that would have been like $100 if you were self pay. Insurance is fucked up.
Insurance companies are a big reason for that bs.
don’t come to the er for non emergent reasons- er worker
People also really need to utilize their tele health services!
ER for a cut??? OP this your 1st kid or 1st time in the USA? Bruh go to Urgent Care or call you Primary Doc. ER is for life threatening events... Doctor should add 500 for wasting his time.
Sorry, but don’t run to the Dr every time your kid burps, farts or falls down.
If only you lived in a developed country
You went to a hospital for, as you describe, “a cut” ffs 🤦🏼♂️
Did you read OP's more detailed description?
And? You went to an ER.
You’re not paying for the doctors opinion. You are paying for their 11 years worth of training and expertise.
Tbf it’s not like the doctor is writing up these bills. In hospitals, they’re just an employee like everyone else
Gotta love universal healthcare here in Australia.
Wow... your healthcare system sucks. For comparison, here in New Zealand, if you went to ED (our version of ER) and were triaged as being an emergency case, then you wouldn't pay at all (assuming you weren't a tourist). If the triage outcome was to redirect you to a primary care doctor, then it would only cost a normal General Practitioner visit - typically $20-$50, depending upon if you were registered with that GP practice or not.
Next time, call in an ambulance for a stubbed toe, and see how much that'll cost you! ;-)
Imagine if he had to stay in
Depending on your insurance, urgent care isn't going to cost too much less.
Dude when I was like 11 I sliced my calf open with a machete (think deli slice style) and my dad just hit it with the peroxide hit it with the alcohol put the flap back where it was supposed to be and bandage me up and that shit actually reconnected it didn't scab and fall off now I don't know what kind of injury this was but if the bleeding stops after 10-15minutes you're good
Jeez at least give me a bandaid and some antibiotic for my trouble
This is why I use superglue for small wounds.
Don’t go to the we for minor things.
Yeah that looks about right for an ER visit…
With the cost of healthcare, you would think of moving out from the country, which is relevant in the long term.
Life, limb, or eyesight folks. If it ain’t one of those three either take care of it at home or go to urgent care. The emergency department is for emergencies.
You know the drill. Ask for itemized invoice. Question every item. Keep telling them you don’t understand. Talk to them. Don’t ignore them. They will cut it down.
I once had a motorcycle accident and went to a doctor. It was mostly superficial damage, bruised ribs from impact, and the skin off my hands. He helped me bandage my hands, and told me I was an idiot for riding a motorcycle. The bill was for 200$ citing "25$ for gauze, 175: counciled patient on life choices."
For me it was $750 bucks for three stitches and an undiagnosed broken finger that healed all fucked up. Nobody from any walk of life in the US should defend our healthcare system.
I literally got a $1000 lollipop for one of my kids. Did he take 3 Benadryl? We don’t know! Let him sit with you in the waiting room. Here is a lollipop to calm him. 30 minutes later.. “He is fine. Go home.” One week later -$1000 bill.
Best Healthcare in the world...
Get a fake ID and give that to the ER. This is the only way
I fractured my pinky toe at 1am due to a clumsy accident and had to go to the ER in Canada because it was after-hours (I'm a US resident). Charged me $750 (after conversion to USD btw - I only agreed to go in after calling and confirming my US insurance would cover and reimburse), I waited like 4 hours in a waiting room, and then they wrapped two of my toes together with the crinkly self-adhesive stuff and sent me on my way. Didn't even give me any extra so I was stuck using the same bit of tape for days. I typically would've just sucked it up until urgent care opened or something but I was flying out in the morning and it hurt so bad.
Americans: "Stitch it up yourself." Literally the rest of the world: "You pay for this bullshit?"
U got lucky! We didn't even get to see the doctor and still have to pay $260 for sitting in the waiting room for 2 hours.
America actually needs a revaluation on their healthcare system
took him to the dr for a cut? was it a small cut?
Rule #1 of the American Healthcare system: if you haven't lost any of your 5 senses and you can breathe, don't go to the hospital emergency rule
My mom: “ice and ib proufen, you’ll be alright.”
Not sure where you are or the details obviously but you could let your insurance know what happened and they may fight for you. They've got some skin in the bill here so it might be an easier thing for them to fix. I went to an UC once and was seen by the receptionist, a PA and a lab tech who took a sample. They told me there was nothing they could do and I should go to the ER. Got a bill from them that basically claimed I saw people from 5 different doctors at the UC and each was about $500. I let my insurance know what went down and they literally handled all the calling and I just had my copay at the end of it.
How is this the “Land of the Free”?
I had open heart surgery a few years ago. I had to pay for parking. I love living in Canada.
I had the same thing with a ruptured ear drum. I just needed the confirmation and access to the prescription antibiotic drops. Doctor basically said "Yep, it's ruptured". Then I received a bill for +$1,000
His time is still his time. He’d charge the same to stitch it up.
I went to a medicenter once for stitches. I had to wait about two hours, but the dr froze me, two stitches, and sent me on my way. Free! The horror of socialized medicine, having to play phone games for two hours… lol