A couple of months ago I gave myself a nice puncture wound via a blender blade. I ended up in the ER for about 6 hours. My time there was pretty uneventful; afterall I just received three stiches and a weak dose of lidocaine.
What does 6 hours in an ER, one shot of lidocaine and three stiches cost these days? $1,189.00
I've had cars that cost less than those three stiches. That was double the rent on my first apartment - it's more than the mortgage on our rental. I am very thankful that we have health insurance - even if it was lousy coverage (as compared to the insurance provided by Ryan's employers) - because we are only responsible for $276.19.
The amount we owe seems a little more reasonable for the entire charge. Was I billed for the actual time spent in the ER? Do they realize how little time I saw any one person for?
By the way, the ER trip was on February 8th and I received the bill today - June 2nd. Before Regence would pay the bill they had to ask me a bunch of questions in a form to make sure they couldn't sue someone else to make them pay for what happened.
I also received a bill today for an ultrasound I had recently. The radiology department billed my insurance company $996 for the ultrasound but they have some sort of deal with my insurance company (I imagine twisted arms are involved) and wa-lah the cost is magically reduced to $579.46. Does that mean if I was poor and couldn't afford insurance I would have to pay the full $996 for the ultrasound? I had a dentist in Vancouver (Dr. Lee on 164th Ave NE & NE 18th St - who is excellent, by the way) who gave me a 5% cash discount because I paid cash. I don't know if he normally did that for me or if he just felt bad because I was a working student - either way I was grateful for the discount.
Someone explained to me that healthcare providers can't give cash discounts because that is considered price fixing or insurance fraud - something pretty naughty. So they charge far more than the service actually costs knowing full well the insurance company will try to haggle them down to nothing for payment. I love having health insurance but it is such a pain knowing that you are paying a little over $700 a month (with it going up $100 every year) and you still have to haggle with payments. We could have bought a cheaper health plan but the cheaper ones don't cover pregnancy and if there is ever a time to have insurance it is when you are pregnant because even the routine care is spendy - let alone if you have complications.
The days of paying out of pocket for 100% of our health insurance is behind us for now. To have Gavin and myself insured through Ryan's employer is a little over $200 a month - so we are saving about $500. PLUS we have no more car payments!!! WOO-HOO!
2 comments:
Before we left to come here we had to get physicals done that included a chest Xray. I was paying my COBRA on my insurance - so it was covered with just a copay. Matthew had to pay out of pocket on everything (luckly the entire physical was only about $300) and received a cash discount for his Xray. Funny thing was that my Co-pay and what he had to pay for the Xray was EXACTLY the same!!! (around $40) I don't think a cash discount is illegal - it just saves so much time for the clinic not to have to bill the insurance so it's a valid discount...but I'm not an expert....but Matthew says that it was to be called "time of payment" discount and you have to pay right away (and usually you can get about 20% off).
It's scary how much healthcare costs in the US - that's one of the main reasons it'll be worth it for me to become a Canadian citizen down the line... You know all about my health insurance fiascos already :)
WOW is all I have to say! I guess I should be more thankful for our National Health Service despite its weaknesses!
Cyndi
Post a Comment