If you're a reader of this blog you'll know that back in May I had to take my son to the ER at Memorial Regional. Due to a variety of factors my son was hit in the face with a baseball, and we went to the ER to make sure he was ok. By the time we got there the swelling was already going down. After about ten minutes we saw a doctor, who looked at him quickly, told us he was pretty sure he was fine, but he ordered a CAT scan to make sure he didn't have a concussion. We were out of there in about an hour.The bill was for almost $6,000.
Having been through some medical procedures myself, and had relatives who have had extremely invasive procedures done in ERs, I knew this was a tad pricey. So I gave the ER folks a call. I pointed out that we didn't have insurance at the time, as I was between jobs. Since it was "self-pay" the hospital was able to drop the charge by 50%. But that still leaves me on the hook for about $3,000.
Questions abound.
For example, would they have ordered the costly CAT scan if they knew I didn't have insurance? If not, does that mean they ordered unnecessarry services to pad their bill? Are they normally this blatant about things like that? I guess I'm lucky they didn't order a sex change for my son to make sure he didn't fracture his gender.
If they charge the insurance companies 50% more than they charge individuals, then how much does it *really* cost? I'm not trying to jack the price back up (although I can't afford $3k any more than I can afford $5k), but when the price varies that much, do they really know what the service costs? Traditionally, if I pay three grand for something, I expect to drive it off the lot.
And finally, WHY does it cost so much? I don't mind costs that are reasonable, but does it really cost $3k to run a CAT scan machine for ten minutes? Does it run on diamonds? Require human sacrifice? It's like me charging $100 for an apple because I want to make sure I have enough money to buy apples ten years from now, and just in case they happen to be made of plutonium.
It's offensive. Really. All this to find out if my son was hit too hard by a baseball. I wonder what people did before the invention of the CAT scan machine? Just not get hit? Or pay $6,000 for someone to wave a dead chicken in the air.
I'll keep you posted on how this all shakes out.
