Question for those who know anything about hospital billing?

[Doug5984]

When I went to Vegas to get married a few weeks back I came down with a bad case of food poisoning. Tried to fight through it for about 8 hours before I decided had to go to the hospital, literally couldn't hold down a sip of water, horrible nausea, dizziness, fever, it was bad. So go to the hospital, they give me an IV with nausea medicine in it. Another IV for just fluids, lay there for 4 or 5 hours. Dr pops his head in says yup looks like food poisoning, then leaves.

Got the bill from my insurance company today (my deductible is 5,500 since I may only go to a walk in clinic once every other year or so at most). Looks like the hospital charged my insurance around $5,500 for the visit, and another $900 for the Dr. The insurance says I owe the hospital around $2,300, and I'm waiting on how much I'll owe for the Dr.

Does this seem like normal practice for a hospital? That seems ridiculously high for how little was involved....but like I said, I never go, so maybe I just don't know how much everything costs. I'm not sure how much they'll say I end up owing... but that's a lot of money. Is there anything that can be done to see why it's so much, a breakdown of charges I guess?

[Izulde]

Las Vegas has horrendous health care, so this doesn't shock me.

[EagleFan]

Sadly that sounds about normal. Had a near 4000 dollar bill from a similar situation a few years ago which was compounded by them not billing the insurance correctly. Became a major nightmare.

[JonInMiddleGA]

You should be able to request an itemized bill from the provider (or at least I believe that's usually available).

Honestly, nothing you've posted here surprises me a great deal in terms of the numbers. Somewhat higher than I would have guessed (+/- $3500) but I suspect the variance is from market to market

[BYU 14]

ER bills routinely come in between $2,000 - $6,000 and I have seen them as high as 20K plus, so it is definitely not out of the question.

I can give you a rough breakdown of what you could expect

The ER charge (just for the bed) $1200 - $1500

IV treatment could range from $80-90 to over $500 each for the solution and another $400-$600 each for the administration (This include nursing charges) depending on what they give you and how much.

Labs if they did any range between $150 to over $500 each (it is $30-$60 just to draw the blood)

So you can see how quickly the charges can add up. You have to remember at the ER you are paying not just for whatever they do, but each procedure has costs built in for the facility usage, nursing salaries, administrative costs, etc.

On top of that you get bills for professional fees from any physician that sees you, or performs any procedures as their fees are not included.

Sounds like your insurance carrier has some type of contractural/discount agreement in place, so the bill you are getting is the actual amount applied to your deductible from the total bill.

As JIMGA said, you can request an IZ and if you do look for things you would know where not done. (Lab charges when they did not draw blood or take a urine sample, take home medications, etc) If you do not agree you can request the bill be reviewed by a Nurse auditor at the hospital, but that can be like pulling teeth and can grag on as they continue to bill you.

If you do go that route I doubt you will knock much off your balance as ER charges aren't as typicially overbilled as a more complex outpatient stay or an inpatient admit, but every dollar still helps.

[Doug5984]

A lot of good info there, thank you for the help.

I'll wait for the actual bill from the hospital then see if I can get a breakdown. That seems just insanely high but if it is, then oh well...sucks a lot, but oh well.

If I didn't think I was on the verge of death on the bathroom floor I would've never gone to the ER, but we called the local walk in clinic and they all said to go to ER...so that was the only option.

[sterlingice]

Isn't it staggering that someone can go in and get service for something that costs somewhere between several months rent to a vehicle to a lifetime investment like a house and have no idea until months after how much it would cost

SI

[molson]

I gotta get into the healthcare profession, they must be flying rocket cars made out of solid gold.

[Rizon]

Looks normal ... for the health care industry.

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Isn't it staggering that someone can go in and get service for something that costs somewhere between several months rent to a vehicle to a lifetime investment like a house and have no idea until months after how much it would cost

SI

This

[Rizon]

I use to do billing for doctors at a major hospital in the Bay Area. Our office was located across the street from the doctor's parking lot. Fun to watch the Ferrari's, Lambo's, Porshe's, Jaguars, MiscEuroSportsCars go in and out of the lot all day.

[Doug5984]

I know the hospitals have a lot of overhead, but I mean a few hours in a bed- interaction with Dr's & Nurses for less than 10 minutes. I basically just laid there getting an IV- and it's going to end up costing the same as 5 months of my mortgage (not sure the exact amount yet, but if it hits 3k that will be true).

Damn it's going to hurt when I have to pay this one...

[stevew]

Did you track down the source of the food poisoning? I don't know how easy it might be to find the source/cross reference it with their health dept. I'm sure you probably used a card to pay for some meals.

Maybe worth a shot, although unsure how effective you'll be.

[Doug5984]

Originally Posted by stevew

Did you track down the source of the food poisoning? I don't know how easy it might be to find the source/cross reference it with their health dept. I'm sure you probably used a card to pay for some meals.

Maybe worth a shot, although unsure how effective you'll be.

It's hard to pin down as it popped up at 2 am, I know where I ate dinner / lunch that day. After dinner walked up and down the strip, stopped at a store and got some candy... On the discharge papers I notice they did not indicate it was food poisoning, even though the Dr said it was a classic case of it, I think it said something to the effect of a stomach virus- I looked when I got home the next night, and haven't looked since (was in no shape to read stuff when leaving the hospital as I was still puking the rest of that day)... I'll try to remember to go pull the papers and re-read them when I get back home Sunday.