emergency room treatment

[broken ed]

According to Dr. Marty Makary, auther of the book “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care – and How to Fix It,” you do not have to provide credit card information to be treated in an emergency room.
He has been interviewed by several news orginazations in which he does pushes his book. One interview can be heard here, along with a partial reading:

https://www.texasstandard.org/stori...highest-in-texas-especially-along-the-border/

More on the EMTALA law below.

http://newsroom.acep.org/2009-01-04-emtala-fact-sheet

"EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act) is a federal law that requires hospital emergency departments to medically screen every patient who seeks emergency care and to stabilize or transfer those with medical emergencies, regardless of health insurance status or ability to pay — this law has been an unfunded mandate since it was enacted in 1986."

Don't know why this post has such wide spacing between lines, tried to correct unsuccessfully several times. (fixed it for you broken ed. rvwandering moderator)

 

[MrNoodly]

"stabilize or transfer"

That's very limited care.

 

[Elbear1]

Its how ive dealt with every issue for past 20 years. I have $30k in debt last i knew. They go straight into garbage.

We understood in the truman days we cant run 10 different utility lines so customers can choose the best electric and phone service at the best price. we understand you cant have 5 roads beside each other going to the same place so we can choose which one we want to drive on. We dont have private police and fire and choose which one we want to pay for or not pay at all.

In an emergency you dont get to choose the best hospital at the lowest price. You cannot even have competition in a given population area of emergency care. You dont get to choose the care you get when youre there. A free market simply does not work everywhere and this is the most disasterous example. Its a testament to propaganda overiding common sense.

 

[Elbear1]

Sorry if thats too political

 

[Elbear1]

If "a small burg" can support 4 major or even minor ER's you a criminal problem going on. Metro areas of 2-3 million usually have less than 5 major hospitals. Most rural counties have 0-1 minor er.

 

[Stargazer]

I worked for a county/teaching hospital for 15 years in a major US city.  There were 11+ hospitals that I can remember.  We treated any and everybody regardless of ability to pay.  One year less than 25% of patients had funding of ANY kind.

One that I distinctly remember was a young man who was in the US without legal documentation; he was in a car crash and had a severe head injury which left him in a coma.  He was treated aggressively in the ICU for 6-8 weeks.  Neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, internal medicine doctors, pulmonologists, radiologists, pharmacists, respiratory and physical therapists, social workers, critical care nurses and techs, housekeeping, infection control, and more all worked to take care of him. No family in the US.  The Mexican consulate helped find his mother in Mexico.  She was flown in, taught how to care for her son, and a medical flight took them both back to Mexico with her permission.  I don't even want to know how much that cost the hospital or taxpayers (US or Mexico?).  
If a hospital does not receive payment of some kind (insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, property or income taxes, etc), they will have to close.  Salaries alone were a big cost.  Do you work for free?  Neither did we.

If everybody threw their hospital bills in the trash, there would be very few left and long waiting lists to get in and probably substandard care.  Everybody wants the best care right now and for somebody else to pay for it.

 

[owl]

If everybody threw their hospital bills in the trash, there would be very few left and long waiting lists to get in and probably substandard care.  Everybody wants the best care right now and for somebody else to pay for it.

Truer words were never spoken. I understand not having the cash or insurance to pay for medical bills, I don't agree with not making any effort at all to pay hospital bills or any legitimate bills owed. Even $5 or $10 bucks every chance you get would be welcomed. That's my parents speaking, just the way I was raised.

 

[sephson]

Back in 2005, I ended up in the emergency room with Appendicitis. My appendectomy and roughly 27 hour hospital stay resulted in a $34,000 bill. My insurance paid $7,800 to the hospital and this was considered Paid-in-Full. My total out of pocket was $310. Somehow, the math just doesn't add up here.

 

[1shemp]

I just show my vet care card and they send the bill to the VA.I don't know why I'm so "special" just because I was in the military.Everyone in the US should have health care.

 

[Elbear1]

Back in 2005, I ended up in the emergency room with Appendicitis. My appendectomy and roughly 27 hour hospital stay resulted in a $34,000 bill. My insurance paid $7,800 to the hospital and this was considered Paid-in-Full. My total out of pocket was $310. Somehow, the math just doesn't add up here.

Because insurance doesn't get charged 1\4 what a non-insured patient is charged. 1 kidney stone in 2005 was billed at $7,500 for a total 45 minute from sign in to leave ordeal.

And when you stop paying they sell your debt to collection agency. Notice the poster who said theres 4 in a little town? Because they arent hurting. In fact they love the scam system we have now.

My brother once broke his leg. He had insurance. On the the bill the hospital charged $900 for an air cast. We went online and found them for $90 retail. Exact brand and size. The hospital makes 10x over retail and when we told insurance company they practically laughed at us. There's where your money goes, folks.

Its an industry and its sleezy as hell any way you spin it.

General practitioners driving around in porsches anymore are nothing but chart readers and specialist referers that dont have time to hear about it.

 

[Elbear1]

If everybody threw their hospital bills in the trash, there would be very few left and long waiting lists to get in and probably substandard care.  Everybody wants the best care right now and for somebody else to pay for it.

If everyone stopped paying their bill it would force a substantial change like most of the world and we wouldnt have a criminal enterprise making hundreds of  billions off human suffering.

 

[Elbear1]

If everybody threw their hospital bills in the trash, there would be very few left and long waiting lists to get in and probably substandard care.  Everybody wants the best care right now and for somebody else to pay for it.

Truer words were never spoken. I understand not having the cash or insurance to pay for medical bills, I don't agree with not making any effort at all to pay hospital bills or any legitimate bills owed. Even $5 or $10 bucks every chance you get would be welcomed. That's my parents speaking, just the way I was raised.

I couldve just harvested opium from my poppy garden instead of a $30k debt. Except thats illegal for some reason and in order to support myself with a garden it costs at least a lifetime of savings, a situation also arbitrarily created.