23 Weeks 3 Days: Legal Drug Dealers

I got my bill in the mail from my emergency room visit. Just a reminder of what I had done: Cut the tip of my finger almost off, went to the emergency room, had a nurse take my blood pressure, then they gave me an X-Ray to make sure I didn't hit the bone, then I was given a room and another nurse gave me a Tetanus shot, then a Nurse Practitioner came in, numbed my finger, rubbed it with some iodine and put in 7 stitches, she left then the nurse came back in a wrapped it with gauze. I was there for about 2 hours, but I was in contact with hosptial staff for a collective 30 minutes. Grand Total: $1,135.08. And that's after a "uninsured discount" of $463.62 which brings that actual amount they feel they deserve to $1,598.70. Now lets break that charge down.

Mediations: $47.30
X-Ray: $91.50
Emergency Room Services: $608.75
Medications With Detail: $304.15
Professional Fee Emergency: $547.00

Medications is the Lanacane they used to numb my finger. They did have to use twice as much as she planned on so this seems to be the most reasonable charge though still a bit pricey. You know they mass produce this crap dirt cheap and the hospital puts a 1000% markup on it.

X-Ray is obviously the X-Ray. After paying the X-Ray tech and for the supplies and use of the room I guess this isn't horrible, but it did only take about 10 minutes which means this room costs $549 an hour to operate. Seems a bit inefficient.

Emergency Room Services is the fee for just having me use the emergency room itself. Well, is the use of the X-Ray room in this charge? I mean, if it's not, then they charged me $608.75 to have a receptionist enter my info into the computer and sit in the waiting room.

Medications With Detail is supposedly medications that were administered by a medical professional (I guess I gave myself a shot of Lanacane). The only medication I got besides Lanacane was a Tetanus shot. I double checked with the lady at thefinance office and yes, this $304.15 is for one Tetanus shot and nothing else. Again, you know that this is being manufacture dirt cheap, and then the drug company marks it up to make record profits and then the hospital marks it up to make record profits and the patient get screwed. And when I asked the lady, "It costs $304 for a Tetanus shot?" She said, "Yep," like there was no reason for me to question that.

Professional Fee Emergency is the fee for Nurse Practitioner who stitched me up. Again, she was in the room for maybe 15 minutes which means this lady makes over $2000 an hour. And supposedly, people get into the medical profession to help people... Really? And I know she's got expenses to pay (insurance, ect.), but this charge is ri-god-damn-diculous. I'm going to find a job where I install one door and then send the person a bill for $500 just for labor. They would call and question that bill.

So the hospital is sending me the form to fill out to get a financial assistance discount. That will come in the mail in a few days and then it will take a few weeks to process it. So we'll see where that gets us. Oh and their wonderful cleaning job didn't work because the damn wound got infected. I had to go to my doctor so he could soak it in an iodine solution, took out some of the stitches and put me on antibiotics. I bet if I brought my finger in and asked for a refund they would probably laugh at me.

And this is why I have little faith for any health care reform that might happen. It's not about who pays for it, it about how much it costs. These procedures and medications should not cost as much as they do.