Post by Jim Allan on Mar 24, 2012 19:54:37 GMT -5
This Article Written By Americana Network
I recently had a family member go to the hospital emergency room complaining of bradycardia ( slow heart rate ). My sister was seeing doctors at the time trying to get a diagnosis concerning all kinds of symptoms including fainting she was experiancing. The doctor she was seeing couldn't and or wouldn't take the lead and tell her what was happening. Her primary did some blood work and the results were normal. I told her to investigate the possibility of vasovagal disorder in which your vagus nerve was messed up after I did lots of research. She went to see a neurologist and he did some tests that came out positive. At the neurologists office her heart rate dived down to 45 bpm and it's normally 80 or so. The neurologist got mad and called her primary and told him about it. She went back to her primary the same day and did a quick ecocardiogram which produced the 45 bpm reading. She was promply told to go to the emergency room and she would probably end up with a pacemaker.
She went to the emergency room and they did their thing and concluded a pacemaker was the best way to go. The doctors at the emergency room was told about the possibility of vasovagal disorder but dismissed it until after the pacemaker surgery when she was back in her bed and went into predome ( predome is a condition associated with vasovagal disorder where you feel yourself getting dizzy and know your going to faint )where her blood pressure dived down to 70/30 and the nurse saw it and tilted the hospital bed legs up to get her blood pressure back up which did work. The doctors then and only then took note of a possible vasovagal disorder and ran some tests looking for a possible hianal hernia which is the stomach moving up into the chest cavity. She was released from the hospital and she was an uninsured patient.
She started receiving the hospital and doctors bills a few weeks later thinking they were only going to be a few thousand dollars since she was only in the hospital for 3 days and the pacemaker insertion only took 45 minutes. 6 or 7 thousand dollars she could pay off in a year or so.
When she got the bill from the hospital it was for over $14,000 dollars including a $6000 room charge for 3 days. Then she started to receive bills from 5 other doctors for the surgery and test procedures which are adding up into the $4000 area.
The $4000 for the doctors and tests seem to be reasonable and the surgeon only charged $1600 for the surgery including all the staff and supplies.
The hospital charging over $14,000 dollars for a 3 day stay with two nurses on 12 hour shifts is Bull Shit! They did have another nurse coming around every few hours doing patients blood pressures but that only lasted 5 minutes. Most of the tests for the surgery were outsourced to other medical companies. 2 hours in the emergency room where nothing happened except a few tests before she was moved up to a hospital floor was charged to her for over $1000 dollars.
I looked the national charge for a pacemaker surgery and they bluebook at $19,000 for the whole show. But after I saw the medical bills and what was actually being done by the hospital itself I am questioning the $14,000 as being a ripoff. The hospital I am finding out can charge whatever the choose to and they are not regulated. The hospitals charge the insurance companies and the insurance companies pay it.
Way back in the 1990's my stepbrother told me his hospital charged $250.00 a day and he worked there. Now hospitals are charging between $1600 to $2000 a day plus tacking on thousands of dollars of junk charges and billing the insurance companies and the insurance companies are paying it.
Are these overly inflated hospital charges stemming from illegal immigration or just pure corporate greed?
I recently had a family member go to the hospital emergency room complaining of bradycardia ( slow heart rate ). My sister was seeing doctors at the time trying to get a diagnosis concerning all kinds of symptoms including fainting she was experiancing. The doctor she was seeing couldn't and or wouldn't take the lead and tell her what was happening. Her primary did some blood work and the results were normal. I told her to investigate the possibility of vasovagal disorder in which your vagus nerve was messed up after I did lots of research. She went to see a neurologist and he did some tests that came out positive. At the neurologists office her heart rate dived down to 45 bpm and it's normally 80 or so. The neurologist got mad and called her primary and told him about it. She went back to her primary the same day and did a quick ecocardiogram which produced the 45 bpm reading. She was promply told to go to the emergency room and she would probably end up with a pacemaker.
She went to the emergency room and they did their thing and concluded a pacemaker was the best way to go. The doctors at the emergency room was told about the possibility of vasovagal disorder but dismissed it until after the pacemaker surgery when she was back in her bed and went into predome ( predome is a condition associated with vasovagal disorder where you feel yourself getting dizzy and know your going to faint )where her blood pressure dived down to 70/30 and the nurse saw it and tilted the hospital bed legs up to get her blood pressure back up which did work. The doctors then and only then took note of a possible vasovagal disorder and ran some tests looking for a possible hianal hernia which is the stomach moving up into the chest cavity. She was released from the hospital and she was an uninsured patient.
She started receiving the hospital and doctors bills a few weeks later thinking they were only going to be a few thousand dollars since she was only in the hospital for 3 days and the pacemaker insertion only took 45 minutes. 6 or 7 thousand dollars she could pay off in a year or so.
When she got the bill from the hospital it was for over $14,000 dollars including a $6000 room charge for 3 days. Then she started to receive bills from 5 other doctors for the surgery and test procedures which are adding up into the $4000 area.
The $4000 for the doctors and tests seem to be reasonable and the surgeon only charged $1600 for the surgery including all the staff and supplies.
The hospital charging over $14,000 dollars for a 3 day stay with two nurses on 12 hour shifts is Bull Shit! They did have another nurse coming around every few hours doing patients blood pressures but that only lasted 5 minutes. Most of the tests for the surgery were outsourced to other medical companies. 2 hours in the emergency room where nothing happened except a few tests before she was moved up to a hospital floor was charged to her for over $1000 dollars.
I looked the national charge for a pacemaker surgery and they bluebook at $19,000 for the whole show. But after I saw the medical bills and what was actually being done by the hospital itself I am questioning the $14,000 as being a ripoff. The hospital I am finding out can charge whatever the choose to and they are not regulated. The hospitals charge the insurance companies and the insurance companies pay it.
Way back in the 1990's my stepbrother told me his hospital charged $250.00 a day and he worked there. Now hospitals are charging between $1600 to $2000 a day plus tacking on thousands of dollars of junk charges and billing the insurance companies and the insurance companies are paying it.
Are these overly inflated hospital charges stemming from illegal immigration or just pure corporate greed?
