A nice young man is a patient of one of the clinics in town who accept self-pay patients. I quickly note on his demographics sheet that he is uninsured as I call him to be triaged. His triage slip reveals the reason he is here is to "get an EKG." No one signs in with that complaint, so I know there is going to be more to this story.
The young man produces a note from his clinic doctor which explains that he is being sent to the ER to obtain a routine pre-op EKG for a surgery he is to have next week because "the EKG machine at the clinic is broken." Chest pain? Nope. Shortness of breath? Nope. You're really just here for this EKG for your surgery? Yep. That's it. I feel great otherwise.
So, aside from the abuse of the ER, it is just sickening that they'd send this poor young man to the over-crowded ER (we were on ambulance divert at the time, on top of it, if I remember correctly) for a routine EKG, especially given that he is self-pay and will have to pay full price for the visit. Maybe the doctor thought we'd just take him back, hook him up to the machine, and then fax the EKG to him under-the-table-like.
Nope, the poor kid is going to be charged full price for the EKG, which is charged at the highest rate (the emergency rate), plus the fee to receive a medical screening exam. I'm sure he'll be happy to get that bill in the mail---he probably could have paid to fix the clinic's EKG machine for cheaper.
Friday, February 22, 2008
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2 comments:
I just found out today that patients get billed for triage, so they get sent a bill even if they walk out and don't get seen or treated by the MD.
I also found out that an O2 sat costs $80. EIGHTY BUCKS! I thought they meant an ABG, but no. Now every time I put that little clothespin-looking thingy on people's fingers, I'm going to hear "ka-CHING!"
Hi, I'm wasting time at work reading your archives. :)
I was having a not paid by insurance procedure done, and needed a chest x-ray. The staff of the dr doing the procedure was like "Oh, the ER can do it". I realize this is crazy, so I call my PCP, who I hadn't actually yet seen (yay hmo), but had an appointment for a physical in like 3 months. I ask if they can give me an x-ray, given that they have an x-ray machine in the office. They say no, because it wouldn't be covered by insurance. I say that's fine, I'll pay out of pocket. They say no, because I hadn't actually seen the dr yet, and of course, there are no appointments to see the dr for non-urgent related matters. I ask where I an get an x-ray done. The ER, they say.
So I head to the ER, which is luckily "not busy" and shamefacedly explain what I need. The nice front desk people explained I could just go to outpatient section of the hospital, fill out a few forms, and they'd hook me up. Which I did, and an hour later, had my chest x-ray done.
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