Damn Healthcare kills me every year

That is a problem. I wonder if that's the same for everyone or particular to your plan. The whole idea of an HSA is to set aside pre-tax dollars to help pay for medical expenses. Getting sick in January would make that moot.

I'm positive that the care you received in the hospital was excellent. Since Medicare pays 80% of hospital cost ( correct me if I'm wrong), am I to believe that you have a Medicare Advantage plan that paid the 20% balance?

You mentioned the $2000 out-of pocketcost...What was that for?


Also, as I recall, your wife is or was a nurse at that hospital. Was she involved in any way with your hospital care?

Lastly, the Kaiser group ( who run the hospital?) are planning on building a medical school in California ( start class=35 students) and the goal( in my opinion) is to train new physicians in the so-called team approach , which was apparently the one that afforded you such excellent medical care.

Residing in a hospital bed in Californis for 14 days ( and nothing else) could easily cost $35,000. If specialized medical and nursing care is added to this amount, I'd guess that the total amount charged for your hospital care ( and board) was of the order of $75,000-100,000.

Good luck!

LINKAT QUOTE:



Be sure you're sitting down when you read the bill. You'll be shocked at the fact that every "little" thing done to your daughter is itemized and charged.

There must be a code for everything...

There are two types I guess - one that comes with the high deductible plan which I have now and the one I had before with the regular (for lack of a better term) health plan.

The plan I had last year had a limit per year what you could contribute - with orthodontists I did the maximum as my orthodontist payments were even higher. The positive - the entire amount was available to me on Jan.1. The downside was the limit was pretty low and you had to use it all in the calendar year or you simply lost it.

With the high deductible plan you have a very high limit (if there was even one - do not remember as it was more than enough). I made sure I did enough to cover the highest deductible along with the additional orthodontist amount I would have this year. The pro on the newer is you can put significantly more aside pre-tax and that any amount unused is carried forward to the next year - so you never lose it. The downside - is the amount is not available until it is withdrawn from your pay so if you have high medical costs in Jan - like I will, you might not have enough accumulated in your account to pay medical bills.

Wonder how much the IV drip will cost. Besides that there should not be anything else from the hospital - besides the regular hospital emergency room cost. Unless they charge for the ginger ale she had.

So we had a follow up at the doctor's office (the hospital recommended we go to their concussion specialist - I thought they might be pricey and my doctor said they could do the follow up at their office) - she had an impact test - wonder if they will charge separately for that. She already has a baseline impact test as it is required if you want to play high school sports. She failed the test everything was well below average for her age.

We have another follow up next week - not sure how many follow ups we will have, but she has to be completely cleared before she can play sports - not to mention be at school 100 percent. This morning I had to have her tardy by a couple of hours as she was worn out.

Miller wrote: "Residing in a hospital bed in Californis for 14 days ( and nothing else) could easily cost $35,000."

It wouldn't surprise me.

Awhile back, USA Today carried a column about the medical costs of childbirth. The columnist, who was born in 1949, was sent a copy of the hospital bill for his birth by his mother. The total was $94 for a one week stay, including all costs. The bill was itemized:

(1) Semi-private maternity room, $9.50 per day
(2) Delivery-room charge, $7.50
(3) Nursery charge, $2.50 per day
(4) "medicine", $2.50

The writer said that the minimum wage in 1949 was 40 cents per hour. He also noted that "Today (2009), according to the University of Virginia, you pay about $6,000 for a maternity visit to the hospital, [but] you don't get to stay a week..."

I think that today a two day stay is more typical. At $94 for seven days, the prorated cost for a two-day stay in 1949 would be $34.00. That would take just over two weeks gross pay at the 1949 minimum wage, assuming a 40 hour work week: and that was at a time when the working poor weren't as burdened by regressive sales and payroll taxes as they are today.

The current minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, and that $6,000 (which may not even include a two day stay) would take more than 5 months of gross wages to pay the bill.


http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/columnist/finalword/2009-10-06-final-word_N.htm

That was in 2009 and assumed insurance. The Truven Report (2010) reported that the uninsured cost was $30,000 for vaginal delivery and $50,000 for a C-section; and costs have increased "dramatically" since then:

http://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/pregnancy-costs/

Correction: It would take more than one year to pay off that bill at $7.25/hour.
$7.25 X 2080 (fulltime equivalent hours/year) = $80.

I don't think so.

$6,000 / $7.25 = 827.6 hours

827.6 / 40 hours = 20.7 weeks. That's a little more than five months.

Realized my mistake too late. You are correct, and I'm wrong.

LINKAT QUOTE:

Wonder how much the IV drip will cost. Besides that, there should not be anything else from the hospital - besides the regular hospital emergency room cost. Unless they charge for the ginger ale she had.[/quote]

How long did your daughter stay in the ER? Did she have many tests, or did the ER doctor do the routine tests for a concussion? In otherwords, did your doctor perform any specialized tests on her?

For the IV, I'd say the charge would be for the IV nurse, who set up the IV and started the fluid running and a charge from the pharmacy for setting up the label and possibly bringing the IV down to the ER. I'm guessing that the ER had the IV bag already in the ER, but it still needed to be recorded by the pharmacy, who probably produced the necessary label.

Have to also include the medication in the IV bag and if multiple bags were used.

A good guess, might be $250 to $1000.

In terms of cost, it's a good thing that your daughter didn't have to stay over night in a hospital room.

Here's an interesting article on IV drips by the NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html

They did a urine test and then just some tests the doctor did ... not lab...like walk in a straight line...touch finger to your nose. Nothing else. We were there for four hours ... only one I bag...took a while because they all of a sudden had a MD rush if patients come in so more as a result of waiting than any actual doctors or nurses helping.

Did you ask the Doctors, the reason for the urine test? I'd ask them.

To be honest I forgot.

The healthcare facility, where I go has a website, where patients can access their lab data, and of course send their doctors e-mails.

If your healthcare facility has such a site ( most in boston do, as far as I know), check to see what the results of the test were. The results will not be printed on your insurance bill.

Usually, a urine sample is used in cases of a UTI. But I see no relationship between a UTI and a concussion. You will be billed for the urine test, as far as I know. The hospitals don't do tests for free nor for no reason at all. And since you're the one paying the bill, you should know what you're paying for.

From Google, a tiny bit of info:Products To Help Pass A Urine Drug Test | Head Concussion:

head-concussion.com/tag/products-to-help-pass-a-urine-drug-test/

In most cases, when a work injury occurs, the hair follicle drug test is not used as the traditional urine drug test can pinpoint the immediate presence of drugs ...

With th opioid/heroin problems at an all time high, I'd say that each and every patient admitted to an ER in Massachusetts must undergo a urine test for drugs, no matter the reason for the visit to the ER, nor the age of the patient. This conclusion is my guess, of course.

I am going to ask when we go in next week.

Ah, so it's potentially just a first year, early in the year problem. Sorry you got hit by that.

Here is an example of where these changes directly impact health care... if I had my old health care I would have my daughter seeing a doctor. She was hurt playing basketball. It appears she sprained her ankle in a game but because of the high deductible we decided to forgo seeing a doctor to confirm. High deductibles are hurting middle class.

Instead we ate confirming with others that have been injured and assuming the same has occurred because the out of pocket is so high.

I've stopped taking 2 medications because it's the beginning of the year and can't afford to take them right now. $800 a month. Eventually I will have my deductible paid off and restart taking them when they are $80 a month.