Approximately 6 months ago my wife needed to visit the ER due to extreme abdominal pain. We assumed a gall bladder or spleen issue. In the end, it was diagnosed as enteritis- painful but not life threatening.
We were in the ER for a grand total of approximately 5 hours and she was given a painkiller and antacid without getting into specifics. She had an ultrasound to confirm internals were in shape but nothing invasive and again, 5 hours all in.
We were told to provide both of our insurances to the hospital. Hers, from her work. Mine, from my work, where we pay an additional cost to have her covered. Her coverage is automatic through her job. For the entire year leading up to this incident, my insurance, not hers, was used for all medical incidents to make sure we were close to our out of pocket maximum which we hit just before this ER visit.
The hospital informed us they could not bill my insurance but MUST bill hers. The policy we had used exactly never before this and didn’t even know it existed until they told us.
This was six months ago. Now we’ve received the full bill. For 5 hours, a pain killer, antacid, and a scan, the total billed is over $14,000.
American medical costs are outrageous- this is an obscene amount of money for a 5-hour, non-life threatening ordeal. It’s criminal. This amounts to $2,800 per HOUR. Of which most we were completely alone.
What are we to do? The hospital will not bill our policy that has met the out of pocket maximum and still expects us to cover over $3,000 AFTER insurance has paid over $11k.
This whole thing seems absolutely impossible to believe and we are unsure if there’s anything we can do.
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