I'm sure this is something that's happened to a lot of us. I got a little piece of metal taken out of my eye at the local ER (Northwest Hospital in Seattle). No big deal, the doctor took about 10 minutes after about 30 minutes waiting. I figured maybe $200 or so?? The bill came today, it's $1100 and they even put on a $5 charge for parking. I'm curious if anybody else has been charged anything like that much? Makes flathead parts look cheap. Sorry if this is too o/t, but I was grinding on a flathead block for a 32 roadster.
Last summer I had a fishing hook stuck in my thumb. After trying everything I could stand to pull it out, I finally went to the ER. Over $700 to pull it out, with a shot of Novacain AND MY OWN LEATHERMAN TOOL! -Brad
I got some ford in my eye a month ago, went to the eye doc down the street, with an appointment, cost me $60 for two visits and $30 for the eye drops. Eye can see how youd be upset I was working on a 5.0
1) Were you wearing safety gl***es? 2) Is there an itemized list of the hospital expenses? If not, request for it and if it looks like they added a bunch of BS, contest it. Travis
dont pay it wait 2 months then call up and tell them you will pay $200 and they will be happy to close it for that amount.
Call the billing departemtn and ask if they will discount it if you pay for it in cash. Here is what I have found out when dealing with the Hospitals....They will discount the **** out of your bill if you offer to pay cash or plead hardship. they will set up a payment plan for discounted rates. Here is why. ALL hospitals get State and Fed grants. they get paid period. if you bill is 1000.00 and you make a deal with them for 500.00 cash cause you are a broke *** hotrodder...they apply that amount to their Grant request. Do you honestly think that ANY hosiptal would treat uninsured people if they weren't getthing the money on the back end...NFW... Give the billing department a call and tell em that you are broke right now cause of the hoildays and that slow down at work and ask them if they can do anything with the bill. they will say yes...when they do him and haw about the amount and ask them if you could give em $**X.00 cash today would they take it.
to keep this on topic, while i was grinding on ch***is for a `32 ford..got a piece in my eye even tough i had safety gl***es AND a face shield on....$358 to get it out.. only was with the doctor less than 2 minutes
only grind when the regular eye doctor's office is open....won't cost as much as going to the ER on evening/weekends. the ER is damn expensive. I guess we all know that now.
I had 4 s***ches put in my knee when I slipped w/my grinder. $988 later, I have a cool scar and a pair of torn jeans.
Dumb question, maybe, but where does "insurance" come into play? I only get jabbed $200 if I go straight to the ER, regardless of what for or what they end up doing...or not doing. I have seen the bills though. Two doses of morphine were $900 alone.
I cut the top of my finger off (just below the nail) Not to get graphic, but it was 99.9% detached from the rest of my finger... I could have pulled it off... when we got the itemized bill for the process I found out they had charged $500 for amputation! (there were other charges for cleanup and suturing.) (btw, cleanup involved a process where they s****ed at the bone.... have you ever had exposed bone s****ed???)
Sweet, I've got $200 OR stuff to trade. How much Morphine are we talking about here? Do I need to poke you in the eye or can you get it outright?
They ain't tryin' to screw us as individuals...they're chargin' what they can get away with from the insurance companies. But don't even get me started on insurance companies... Seems like I'm always gettin' car in my eye...my dad taught me a trick when I was a teenager that I still use, as long as whatever is in there isn't embeded yet. Take a book of matches and pull one out. Use the detached end (not the sulphur end...duh! hahaha) to get the invading *******. The fibers that stick out from the end of the match where it was ripped are like magic little fingers and will grab damn near anything. Of course if ya can get it right away...go to the eye doc. No need to go scratchin' up yer eyeball. Olson
Metal in the eye ****'s and there are certainly instances where it is worse then other's, keep your "eyes" open for a used or inexpensive eye wash station, this doesn't always get the metal out but for the couple times it does it certainly pays for it's self.
You need a good dentist for a friend. I've removed earrings from an ear, warts from a foot, growths from a face, and sutured up a few nasty cuts. I'm really better at teeth Eyes are out of my malpractice experience. I was rough housing with my son a few years back and afterwards he complained of a pain in his elbow and clutched his arm tight up against his side. I took him to the ER. In the process of taking an x-ray of the arm his frown turned to a smile and he jumped up ready to wrestle again. I figured he was faking the whole time and was a little annoyed. I came to find out that what he had is called nurse maid's elbow. The ulna comes out of socket very easily with a toddler. Turning the hand palm out and thumb up pops it back in place. $1000 dollars later and three hours wait he was good as new.
Intravenous Morphine. You want that I have them take an extra vial of blood? I guess that's "needleless" sharing of the needle, huh? Well, maybe not by the time you get yours.
i vote for the old divers helmet. i've got **** in my eye twice before i learned that the goggles don't help, so far i been lucky with the face shield. the best way for protecting yourself is to make sure either you or your spouce has insurance.......imo my girlfriend works retail for bigger companies (one of us has to do it!), but damn california and thier no common law/significant other laws. now if i want insurance we HAVE to get married (most of the shops i've been at don't offer insurance), after 16 years i'm not sure she's the one...............
I went in the E/R once for a broken thumb. When I got the bill it showed that they gave me an enema........What the hell does that have to do with a broken thumb?!!
Ditto. I have a record at the clinic as long as my arm of FB removals (foreign body). Most of the time the FB didn't get shot right into my eye, they came off my hair and fell into my eye as I was pulling the gl***es off, or my shirt later on. When you are done grinding, blow your hair and shirt off with compressed air before removing the gl***es or mask. Also, be conscious of which way the sparks are shooting as you grind. Spray them AWAY from you.
Shoulda posted WTB - MORPHINE in the cl***ifieds. You'd probably coulda swapped for something or at least got a better price.
5k for an x-ray due to a scratch on my wrist, sleeping there for 5 hours, the ****tiest breakfast I have ever had and a few breathalisers
I'm in the health insurance field, i've seen more mistakes on bills than you could imagine. I had one client who had a child die in a car accident, their total out of pocket for medical was $1500. When they got the bill from the hospital it showed they owed $4,500. They paid it, not knowing that they only owed $1,500. The insurance picked up their portion of the bill including $3,000 that the family had already paid. When the family brought the claim to me, I knew right away that they had over paid. I called the Hospital, they couldn't find the money. I had all of the check numbers from the family and the insurance company showing an overpayment of $3,000. The hospital finally found the money in the "childs account", they credited the "childs account" $3,000. The child had been dead for 2 months, and they still had an account with them. I could go on for hours about **** like this. And there is no easy solution. Large government and large organizations are breeding grounds for corruption.
Unfortunately, yes. If a doctor ever tells you that giving a bone marrow sample "won't hurt much," he's lying. Imagine having a piece of 1/8" tubing forcefully pushed through you pelvis and into the marrow. Twice. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced. Slonaker
O/T from the Emergency room $$$ but may be useful : I installed a set of ****** dual outs to dual muff's and cable operated header dump valve on the Falcon Six'.This required lots of cutting and grinding of exhaust tubing. I worked continually with PPE' but succeeded in getting a nice metal splinter in my cornea. The first day my eye watered and itched. The second day I was in misery and saw an ER type doc who scooped it out with the end of a hypo and said, ..."good thing you got it out before you needed the rust BURR-DRILLED out". I felt better for two days and the third I woke up with it my eye ON FIRE and driving me to extreme distraction. I went to my Optometrist in town and he took a quick look and sent me immediately to an Opthalmologist . He whipped out a neat little battery drill - like a die grinder - and proceeded to burr-drill (die grind/port relief/ route ?) my eyeball. I felt much better immediately and other than some light sensitivity quickly healed and was able to get the exhaust completed. I have to say I was actually EAGER to have my eyeball drilled when I was in so much discomfort with the splinter. If was a proverbial caveman, I gladly would let my cave-mate s****e my eyeball with a stone in an effort to end that odd helpless feeling. Powerband - (The reality show is in the mirror)
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