Word: stoned
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...total bill came to exactly $11,960. That's for less than four hours in an E.R. bed, intravenous painkillers, CAT scans, a doctor prodding my belly for a minute or so and, lest I forget, the catheter for an emergency urine analysis. The stone passed naturally that same night...
...insurer was about $7,100 after its discount, a small part of which was my co-payment. But had I not been insured, I would have been stuck with the entire $12,000 bill. Reform advocates say charging even $7,100 for something as ordinary as a kidney stone just doesn't make sense and points up what they call the rampant U.S. practice of "defensive medicine": ordering excessive treatment out of fear of being sued for malpractice, which in turn points up how important malpractice reform is, as President Obama acknowledged this summer. "It underscores the problem of healthcare...
That's helping to drive costs through the roof. I had no idea when they wheeled me into the CT salon to detect my kidney stone that I was getting not one but two CAT scans performed - abdominal and pelvic - at almost $3,500 a pop. I've since learned from medical experts that one would have sufficed. And even if my insurance provider did end up paying closer to $2,000 for each scan, that's still well above the less than $1,500 average CT screening cost...
...charge for the physician's care. It was coded on the bill as Level 5 - the highest, what you would think would be charged for, say, shooting victims or massive coronary patients. While I was admittedly in epic pain during those few hours when the stone drilled its way from kidney to bladder, my case was nowhere near life-threatening. Again, I was simply told, "The doctor determined your care was of the nature reflected by the level that's on the bill...
...fair, the E.R. care level often has less to do with the severity of the case than with the diagnostic work required of the physician. Still, $3,000 for diagnosing a kidney stone "is unfortunately all too typical in Miami," says one South Florida healthcare expert - a big reason the average annual private healthcare provider costs for a family of four in the city is a remarkable...