In July of 2021 one Taylor Davis has found herself at the Emory Decatur Hospital emergency department seeking help for a head injury. She had spent 7 hours waiting for medical attention and left without being attended to. She was later charged 700 US dollars for the privilege of being allowed to waste her time there. Yes, you read that correctly - Ms Davis did indeed have the gall to show up injured and request medical help - at a hospital's emergency department, mind you - and, whether she got help or not, she did occupy their precious chair for a number of hours, and the hospital naturally wanted to be compensated for the trouble,
It is hard to get all the details. Apparently, the injury in question was not severe; however, without examining a person complaining of a head injury, you can not tell whether it is severe or not. I guess Davis was lucky not to have a cranial bleed or something similarly threatening as she had left the hospital (after wasting 7 hours there) and went home and was OK. However, had she had such a condition, this wait may have turned fatal.
Were her experience unique I would perhaps choose to just view her case as a mere aberration. However, by all indications it is not. For example, on 8 December 2020 in he evening yours truly ended up at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts, a far suburb of Providence, with severe abdominal pain. I suspected it could have been a kidney stone as I had one before, and that was what it turned out to be.
So here is how it played out. My significant other drove me to the hospital but was not allowed inside due to COVID restrictions. I had informed security guards who were the only hospital personnel available in the lobby that I was in severe pain. They told me to wait. I ended up waiting for 1 to 2 hours. While I waited, the pain subsided, and fell asleep due to exhaustion. Then a nurse came to get me, woke me up and took me to an actual treatment ward where I was diagnosed by way of a CAT scan and got a prescription for pain killers and given a diuretic pill and released. Afterwards, I got a bill for over 2,000 USD - and, unlike Ms Davis, I actually had a medical insurance, so that was the portion of the bill that the insurance would not cover.
To clarify - the Sturdy Hospital is not an exception, in my assessment. I have been there and interacted with personnel on many occasions, mostly accompanying others, sometimes as a patient. Their bureaucracy may be worse than average, the medical personnel seem to be mostly professional. But they are still part of what appears to be a rather dysfunctional system. And between people having to sue hospitals to get life-saving COVID treatment for their loved ones and emergency departments effectively refusing to provide meaningful care - never mind adequate care - is this system even functional? Oh, and as a bonus, that system charges you amounts that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual expenses associated with services rendered or prices reasonable within any sort of marker context. Is a system like this beneficial to society, or does it do more harm than good? You be the judge.
References
Woman waited in Atlanta ER for seven hours and wasn't seen. She was later charged $700.
Gabriela Miranda, USA Today, 2 November 2021
Uninsured woman billed $700 for waiting in an Atlanta emergency room without care
Lynn Chaya, National Post, 2 November 2021
Illinois family credits Ivermectin with saving life of father hospitalized with COVID-19
FOX 32 Chicago, 29 November 2021
Massachusetts man reportedly on the mend following a court-ordered Ivermectin treatment
@borepstein, 6 September 2021
Social media links
Website
Support
I don't know how the health system is there, but this kind of stories could happen in private hospitals here.
Even at private hospitals? Wow!
In the US healthcare is so heavily regulated, hardly any of it is truly private at this point.
Private hospitals are free to rob.
I knew Turkey was a corrupt society - but I wasn't aware of that aspect of corruption. Would they really charge you this sort of exorbitant amounts, too?
Well, if the price of PCR test was 10$ in the beginning of the pandemic, they demanded $50. If you had to stay in hospital due to the coronavirus, you wouldn't have to pay since it was an emergency situation. However, they demanded astronomical prices from people.
Fortuately the goverment imposed restriction for the prices of private hospital and made it "free" in that times.
View or trade
BEER.Hey @borepstein, here is a little bit of
BEERfrom @pixresteemer for you. Enjoy it!Learn how to earn FREE BEER each day by staking your
BEER.This is ridiculous, why on earth does this happen? What's the point of insurance if it's still going to be so expensive afterwards?!
Very good points!
Perhaps "corruption" would be the best one word response.
the very fact this is happening.. proves beyond a doubt that 'medical care' is 'political care'
and OD treats the whole person. a MD treats your symptoms with medicine.. drugs.
the person that creaed an MD did not use them.. he made them to destroy health.
the proof is all around you. and now the corruption that is MD.. greed is the main motivator for most doctors.. unfortunately.. if you can even say they could be useful, given their training as drug-only givers