This is crazy.. im really upset

tiffandrock

Active member
So you remeber I told you I had fell, the ambulance took me to the hospital, all to find out I was anemic. Well I don't have any insurance.

I have now gotten 3 bills

#1 hospital bill which was $1,100 but they brought it down to $700
#2 Physician bill $450
#3 Emergency vehicle bill $715...... $80 of it was just for mileage. They didn't even drive me that far. And then $635 was for the rest, which they didn't do much, but a little iv thing in my arm, and checked my blood pressure. I didn't even want to go to the hospital, but they kept telling me I should.

So I owe about $2,000 for them to tell me I'm anemic. This sucks. And it wouldn't of happeend if I wouldn't of stepped in that stupid pot hole, and been on my period for freaking 3 weeks. UGh!!!!!!!!!
 
:cussing: No one like unexpected bills, but it's all part of life. You better get use to unexpected expenses now that you are a homeowner. Just be glad that you can pay so much each month and not have to pay all at one. Be thankful that they only found you to be anemic and didn't need more medical attention that would require a lifetime of medical expenses.
Yes it stinks but things could always be worse.
 
:cussing: No one like unexpected bills, but it's all part of life. You better get use to unexpected expenses now that you are a homeowner. Just be glad that you can pay so much each month and not have to pay all at one. Be thankful that they only found you to be anemic and didn't need more medical attention that would require a lifetime of medical expenses.
Yes it stinks but things could always be worse.

That is so very true, all of it.

Tiff, one of my big gripes is that I believe healthcare costs are way over inflated, no wonder most of us cannot afford healthcare and dental. I'm sorry you have such high bills but, I'm glad you are indeed ok. And about the pothole, you don't know that, something else could have triggered this episode if you didn't fall.
 
sorry about the bill tiff. as to the pot hole.. well if it wasn't for the pot hole you might not have found out you were anemic until you passed out while driving or something. see, gotta look at the bright side... I know, I hate looking at the bright side too. :laughing: stupid silver lining.
 
When hubby and I end up having an unplanned medical expense I get a tad cranky too. But then I thank my lucky stars that we're all healthy, alive, and well. I think about the families who have really sick children or a spouse who require constant visits to the doctor, medical care, etc. It really could be worse.

Did you have to call for an ambulance? Just wondering because I would have just driven myself or had someone take me for a sprained ankle. Those ambulance rides are expensive if it isn't an emergency.
 
wanna talk about hospital bills? I got one when my oldest boy needed to be flown by helicopter to the childrens hospital in St. pettersburg... 14,000... not kidding 14,000.. :whistle: that was just the ride there. Not counting the 9 days in SICU... needing a nurse there 24 hrs a day then 3 days in a regular room.
 
wanna talk about hospital bills? I got one when my oldest boy needed to be flown by helicopter to the childrens hospital in St. pettersburg... 14,000... not kidding 14,000.. :whistle: that was just the ride there. Not counting the 9 days in SICU... needing a nurse there 24 hrs a day then 3 days in a regular room.

Wow thats putting me into perspective. I know I whine so much. lol. I just need to thank God, Kailey has been so healthy, only had to go to the hospital once, and shes 5. That was when she had a really high fever, when she was a baby. She's only had to go to the doctors once or twice a year.
Rocky and I have pretty much been real healthy. So I guess I should count my blessings. And figure out how to get medical insurance. I did fill out FL kid care for kailey. WE have to send a bunch of papers in. Thats the thing I hate, it's hard finding all that stuff. Rocky keeps all his papers in one big stack, and won't let me touch it.
BTW I think I messed up on the fl kid care appl. IT said something about earned income. And I didn't know what that meant, So I put no. Went on to the next question. Well when I was done with the application. I kept thinking about it. I asked my mom what earned income meant. She said it was like tips. So I guess I lied on the application. I kept trying to go back to change it, but it wouldn't let me. I'm going to try to call the number on there tommorrow. OR I guess they will see it, when we send the papers in, because some of that money is on our tax thing.
 
I hope you can get it straighten out tiff. And If I got a bill like you got I would not be happy either. I only brought up the 14,000 because your post reminded me of it and how I about had a heart attack. :laughing:
 
When I had my appendix removed in 99' I almost died when I got the bill also ~ over $11,000! I asked the doctor if I had died on the table and he had to bring me back or something. He couldn't believe that it was that much. He told me his fee was a flat $1000 and to ask for an audit. When I got the audit back it had went up to $13,000 but they left it at $11,000 because they were so nice. Yeah right, they just wanted me to shut up!

Took us FOREVER to pay that one off! Every income tax refund went to Madisonville for my appendix for years!
 
health care cost are outrageous. here is another example.. I took my daughter to the ER and the doc came in, looked at her and said.. give her some Gatorade.. turned around and walked out.. never saw him again.. that's all he did.. I got a bill for 267.00.. I didn't pay it. I paid the ER bill just not his bill.
 
The costs are so high, because they are recouping their losses--people who don't pay their bills or can't and people who abuse their health insurance plans. My husband works with a guy that runs to the doctor's for everything. Co-pays make it even more tempting to run for every sniffle. A couple of weeks ago, he ran to the emergency room to have a bunyon cut off! :nono: Then, because of these idiots, we have to pay more and more every year for coverage and insurance pays out less and less every year to pay expenses.
 
That's true but some of it is greed.. I wasn't about to pay this doctor 50.00 a second for his time. or 50 odd dollars a word... :whistle: and to make matters worse I took her to her doctor the next day and guess what.. she had to be hospitalized. She was in the hospital for 2 days. Its instances like this and a few others I wont go into, that make me have a real dislike for doctors and the medical profession as a whole. There are really good doctors out there but they are few and far between IMO.
 
I get irritable with the high fees as well. I mean, $6 for a band-aid! C'mon! That's not right by any means. And what about the insane expenses for diagnostic machines/tests? Insurances want to screw people over by saying they don't need that specific test because they don't want to have to pay for one to have the test...because it's expensive! If going to the doctor or ER were more affordable more people would be paying their doctor bills. Same way with buying health insurance.

Ugh. Now I'm grouchy. :cussing:
 
HMO's and PPO's make it very hard for doctors to do their jobs properly. Back when we had traditional insurance plans, they would take as much time as needed to properly diagnose their patient. Now, because of the lower payouts of the HMO's and PPO's and all their restrictions for services, they have to rush through their patients to make what they used to make and can't order alot of tests that they used to without permission from the insurance company. I really think that the HMO's and PPO's made a whole mess of the healthcare system. I, personally, would prefer to be back on traditional medical insurance coverage.
 
Don't forget one of the reason we all pay more is because the insurance is so high for hospitals and doctors. Why is insurance so high? It's because of all the people that sue the doctors and hospitals. Some people have legitimate cases but so many more don't. But even if the lawsuit is frivolous they still have to hire lawyers to defend the case.
 
Well I talked to customer service on each of the bills. I have to wait till they send me the package to fill out, then send that back. Then they will send me a letter to see if I qualify for a reduction. Then send copies to the other bill places. Wow that will take a long time. Probably will have those pesky debt collectors calling me by then.
 
Hopefully Rocky lets you touch his "important" papers so you can fill out the forms correctly and maybe get Kailey medicaid or whatever it's called in FL. You won't have to deal with excessive doctor bills then. Good luck!
 
I'm in NYC with my little brother right now.

Two years ago, he had a very bad ear infection and his ear drum broke. After that, he started to complain that he 'heard' his eyes blinking, his heart pounding, his eating, walking ect.

The doctor decided he was at puberty and was going crazy. Long story short, they put him on lithium which turned a very spunky 14 year old A student into a kid who was failing and turning into a monster.

A friend of Michael's, who is a surgical nurse saw a Dateline and said Jeremy had every sign of an ear canal disrupture. His doctor refused to let him be sent to a specialist and have it even checked.

Michael got the name of the doctor and called him and my brother's ear canal has a break and he needed to have surgery.

Long story short, I'm sitting at the Mandarin Hotel with my little brother in the hospital. He just had the surgery today and was hysterically crying becuase he didn't HEAR his own eyes blinking like he did for over 2 year. It nearly drove him mad.

Even though my brother has insurance, since his primary would not send him to a specialist, Michael is paying for my brothers surgery. He had to give $15,000 up front. The whole bill, minus travel, will be around $26,000 which will include two visits. Of course, he has to fly up to the city and someone will have to travel with him.

It's unbelievable that my parents have insurance and his doctor is more concerned about being sued for malpractice than my brothers health.
 
When Momma died it was like a shock treatment. It happened so fast that we really didn't realize what had happened until we sort of compared notes at the house. When we all got thinking about it it was really easy to see that she had been mistreated. Daddy had went so far as to make an appointment with her doctor the morning that she passed away and told him that he was killing her or his lack of care was killing her.

Momma died at around 3:00PM or so if you go by the first code. The doctor knowing that Daddy had already been in to see him earlier that morning kept her alive for another 12 hours on a ventilator. Why? To cover his butt. He sat a nurse right outside her door and she sat there and went over everything they had written down in the files. What did the doctor do? He came out looked us in the eyes and told us that Momma was going to be just fine. He would have her up and walking around again in no time. We WANTED to believe him. It was easier than the truth that was staring us right in the face.

Could we have opened a lawsuit ~ probably. Did we? No! Once we were able to think somewhat clearheaded about what had happened we knew that there wouldn't have been any real evidence in the records anymore. Daddy talked to his friend that is a lawyer and he told Daddy that if we decided to sue that he would help. Once we talked about it we decided that it wasn't going to change things one way or the other. The only thing that was changed was our lives and that a lawsuit couldn't have fixed those. I'm sure the doctor had no problems laying down his head and going to sleep at night...that to me is a bad doctor also and I hope I never have to deal with one like that again!
 
Ping, I worked as a legal clerk in a law office that did mostly civil suits. You bet we'll go after the doctor but we want his license, not money.

I already have lawyers I know on retainer and ready to take it on with the medical board.

My brother is healing rather nicely and may get to go home tomorrow. He can't fly, doctor is worried about the air pressure breaking the fixed canal, so we are going to drive home in a limo from NYC back to VA. :headbang:

That is after we do some shopping and spend some time in some stores for the next two days. My brother has never been here so we are going to have some fun.

Wait til Michael sees the American Express Black bill from this trip. :whistle:
 
Back
Top