$15,780 for a dislocated hip ??
 

Super bowl Sunday, was skiing, had just finished a run and bent down to unbuckle a boot.. Hip came out, I went down like a crack whore.. SERIOUS pain. My buddies loaded me into the back of their station wagon and off to the ER I went.
So I got my bill today for 6 hrs of loving care (and getting a Ortho doc to put the hip back in place). $15,780 WTF ?? I have insurance but still ... kinda outrageous don't you think?

Don't feel bad. That would only get my kid to March of next year at school. :D

Welcome to the wonderful world of health care in the U.S. Best medical care in the world yet most expensive and least accesible.

Sad thing is that the medical personnel most important (nurses and docs) probably only received a fraction of that amount...I'd be shocked if the doc bill was more than a grand.

when i went to the emergency room for my dislocated shoulder, it was @ $4,500 for two hours, 2 x-rays, and for the doc to pop it back in.

I"m going to request an itemized bill we'll see how much the Doc gets

I don't mean to be insensitive, but a good crack whore ought to make at least $15k a year. Now you've got practice, so it's just a matter of applying yourself. In no time until you'll be flush again... What?

just pop it back in like mel gibson did in lethal weapon!

I suspect the allowed amount was less than half of that, they bill a certain amount, the HC insurance gets a discount, you pay a percentage of discounted total.

Next time just leave the hip alone. Suck it up and buy a wheel chair.

Except for Blue Cross of South Carolina, I know a hospital there that gets 75% + of billed charges. But like Tobra says, most hospitals get a less than half. It's effed up that people without insurance can pay 2-3 times what insurances are allowed to pay.

Actually, Anthem BC paid 14k and change , leaving me with 1500 to pay

Big deal. That's only $2,630 per hour. I stepped on a nail last month, and went to the ER for a tetanus shot. (It was the weekend, so the clinics were closed) I was there for fifteen minutes, got my shot, and left. Just got the bill for $1,100, or $4,400 per hour.

Healthcare does need fixing, but not by government takeover.

How much of that did your insurance pay?

Best,
Tom

Geez, doesn't anyone warranty their work any more?

I'm guessing the original work was ~45k

Out of warranty?

OK, 15.000 is a lot of money.
Was it worth the money to get your hip fixed when you were in lying on the ground in agony?
Why would it not be worth it afterwards?

a: Ouch, I'm in pain, please help me.
b: Ok Sir, but that will be 15.000 dollars.
a: I don't care, just help me will ya...

Afterwards:
b: Well your hip is fixed Sir, your good as new.
a: Gimme back my 15 large...


Your insured, what's the big deal?

Don't post that over on the "Politics and Religion" section of this website. There are several screaming tighty-righties who will call you all sorts of names, call you a homosexual, and tell you that your a thief who wants to take money out of their pockets when you complain about the sorry state of our privatized heath care system.

In Belgium, where I lived for nearly a year in 1999/2000, if you get sick/hurt, you walk into the hospital. You get treated. Then you walk out. There's no hassle. There's no "well, that's a pre-existing condition." There's no "sorry, you've reached the end of your coverage, so now you can just....die" There is none of that. They treat you, and when you are healthy again, you go home.

We, in the US, spend 16% of our GDP on maintenance. Human maintenance, that is. Belgium has a socialized/private system where the government manages the private companies; they make a small profit, but it is completely controlled. Expensive? NO- the Belgian government spends 12% of GDP on this sort of hassle-free coverage each year.

Hello?

N!

Principle, I imagine.

Should hospitals/doc's hang out waiting for people in massive pain, as an opportunity to shake-down the patient for all they've got? .... What's the definition of extortion?

The big deal is that they charge so much because they know insurance takes care of it, and because all of them do it this way, insurance keeps going up...
It's a bubble , like the .com bubble, the credit bubble, the housing bubble..

bubbles have to pop

There is no reason why 6 hours of hospital,x-rays, some meds, and popping a hip back in place should cost 15 000 USD..
The fix is just meds, and a little bit of mechanical pressure applied to the right location...

In most countries it would have been just a fraction of that price.

It would be a fraction of that cost in Angola or Liberia.
In most Western countries it would be expensive, maybe not 15.000 expensive but still.
The fix maybe just meds and mechanical pressure.
But before they put some pills in one's mouth and pop it back in, they have to determine what is actually wrong, hence the exams and X-rays. That raises the cost.
I don't know how many people are needed from the moment that someone is brought into the ER until the moment he is discharged, 2 nurses, a radiologist, a doctor,...?
If you want a cheap fix, ask for a random passer-by to pop it back into place and hope for the best.

I have no idea what it would cost here but it would not be cheap either.
It is lot of money, and they probably do charge a lot more than the actual cost + reasonable profit.
It is very expensive, but what's the other option? Like Moses said, a wheelchair?