Life Experience: Hospitals and Health Insurance

November 7th, 2008

Going to the Hospital Without Health Insurance

A year ago, I woke up at 2a with the worst stomach ache of my life. With no other options, I sucked it up and made it to the hospital. I arrived at the hospital around 4:30a and was home by 5:45a. I spent 45 minutes in the hospital between checking in and being diagnosed. Later that afternoon I dished out $95 for the antibiotic and $13 for the otc medication.

Two months later I received the hospital bill. The bill consisted of an emergency room fee ($1400), lab fee ($300), and misc fee ($300). The 45 minute hospital visit totaled $2000. I called the hospital billing department and asked if they had a payment plan for the uninsured. The woman told me that they did, in fact have a program if there was a problem paying for the bill upfront. First off, the hospital flat out reduced my bill by 50%. I was then able to pay the rest of the bill off in four or five payments. Thanks to this program, my $1600 bill had been reduced to $800 and I had a decent amount of time to pay that back. The total was still painful but much much easier to pay back than the initial amount. However, I was still annoyed to be charged almost two grand just for 45 minutes of being in the hospital.

Going to the Hospital with Health Insurance

Two months ago, I spent three hours throwing up in my bathroom and, for various reasons, decided to go to the hospital to make sure everything was okay. I checked into the hospital (different hospital than above) at 4:15a. After 30 minutes I got put in a hospital bed and was hooked up to an iv. The doctor came to see me at 7:30a and had a nurse put some anti-nausea fluids into my iv. I started feeling a lot better and laid there for another hour until the doctor came around to check on me again. I was discharged from the hospital around 9:15a. Making my total hospital stay about 5 hours.

Just last week I received the hospital bill. The bill consisted of a pharmacy fee ($4), IV Solutions ($13), IV therapy ($618), Sterile Supply ($32) and a general Emergency Room fee ($1380). The five hour hospital stay totaled $2,047. Fortunately, my insurance company (Aetna) covered $1947 of the bill, leaving me to pay $100. And I really can’t complain about that.

In short:
While I still did have to pay a lot out of pocket for being uninsured, there are numerous programs out there that will provide assistance if you just ask for it. Obviously, having insurance was a much more pleasant experience and I was extremely surprised at how much they covered of the visit.

Entry Filed under: life