• they/she*

30+ tired nb lazyfutch
:: socal
:: demi @ best
:: certified robot therapist
:: Not a therian, despite reposting so much furry art
:: posting is not activism

*I still don't feel like I "deserve" she/her but no better time than now to ask for it. Either is fine but please don't switch pronoun sets within the same sentence


lexyeevee
@lexyeevee

so one time i was having heart palpitations

and i'm on strong amphetamines which can exacerbate heart issues so this seemed Not Ideal

so i went to an urgent care clinic and the receptionist like "uhhh we're pretty busy right now and tbh if you're having a heart problem you should go to the ER"

so i did a big sigh and we went to the ER

i was there for like ten minutes, they basically took my pulse and measured my o₂, a doctor came in and waved off the pills saying it wouldn't be those, i probably wasn't getting enough potassium and should take a multivitamin

the bill arrived a couple weeks later. and then a second bill a week after that. the doctor and the hospital billed me separately

i think it cost five or six thousand dollars in total

to be told to take a multivitamin

and that will sure give me pause about ever going to an ER again

anyway american health care is bad


onethirdxcubed
@onethirdxcubed

Love 2 be billed by the doctors and the radiologist and the anesthesiologist and the facility separately and then sometimes one of these groups loses your insurance info or randomly gets denied so they try to balance bill you later. I'm glad my work has an on site clinic which is at least better than the 4 hour wait at urgent care (and realize i'm privileged to even have that option in this country), but really didn't help me when I had the kidney stone.


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in reply to @lexyeevee's post:

i took my dad (somebody who has had a heart attack and a triple bypass previously) to the hospital yesterday over chest pains and dizziness. after 2 and a half hours, they gave him a potassium vitamin and told him to talk to his gp about it and dismissed us. doctors just generally do not seem interested in helping people in this country. somebody with a fishhook in his finger took priority over us in line because he happened to be there first

hey i ALSO once got a five thousand dollar bill to get my heart palpitations checked out, but at least in my case they had me wear a goddamn halter monitor. still highway robbery but at least they did a fucking diagnostic test

What sucks is there are financial aid programs at SOME hospitals but you don't know which ones or which programs or if you qualify until you're, already there. It's extremely frustrating.

Oof :(

I was sick at one point for a month and finally decided I'd best drag my ass out to the hospital. Because I went to the right hospital (my pick was "not the one closest because it's expensive from experience), and lived in the "correct" part of town, and didn't make too much money, and was uninsured, my total billing was like $500 for an overnight stay.

I can't even share this news with most of my local friends because most of them don't live in the correct areas to apply for the financial aid. Or they already have insurance which I think would probably disqualify them from it.

Again, super frustrating. Stuff like this should be public, easily accessible, and well known knowledge. The fact that it's impossible to find out is almost as upsetting as the billing bs in the first place.

the biggest thing that would help is forced transparency when it comes to medical billing -- as it stands The Patient is sort of literally left out of all that, and only insurance companies and the places themselves actually hash it out.

shit is clownishly ridiculous