Hospitals Block ‘Surprise Billing’ Measure
In my case I would’ve received treatment for a serious neurological issue sooner but for the fact that the hospital did not extend to me an <i>honest</i> price for the treatment. I think this kind of thing effectively amounts to denying some patients treatment and should be treated as such.<p>We went in the ER and I was admitted. The five day course of treatment on admission we were told would run in the vicinity of $20,000. Something I could afford given the extreme circumstances if insurance were to deny it (longer story there).<p>But the next day we were told that insurance would deny and the total would now end up around $100,000 for the full treatment. Not something we could afford. And I was not in the state of mind or ability to handle this smartly or know I could get a lawyer or try to start some negotiation with them as people might suggest.<p>So we had to be discharged without completing the treatment. A month later I had been relocated across country to change insurance to a provider that covered it and was able to start treatment. Now we could see that an insurance company was only paying $16,000 for the full course.<p>This effectively denied me treatment (amongst other things) and caused pretty significant harm.<p>(This is not ignoring that I am lucky to be in a position to afford a $16,000 treatment bill and many aren’t, but this is to say that when the hospital jacks up the price 7 fold in a situation like this they’re effectively saying “go away we won’t treat you”. They could’ve just as easily given me the real pricing and then I would’ve been able to be treated.)