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"No prices are set or advertised" This what tees me off. I have no idea what a test cost will be when I walk in the door of a clinic. Is my bill going to be $250 or will it be $2500+... I have asked, no one can ever tell me. I try to get pre-treatment estimates when I can to alleviate this situation. Yes, you HAVE to make sure your provider is in-network. Most important!!
In the end did she have insurance if so that was either the price by contract or not the end price. She certainly should go to a non-critical care center first which many hospitals have .They can easily do stitches and even transfer to their emergency of needed. Its no different than shopping for anything important. I know where locally I want to go for what and who contractors they use are accepted by my insurance even to providers a hospital use from outside when needed. People often seem very careless in healthcare shopping: IMO.
This is where Emergency Care Centers come in. An ER will charge far, far more. I went to an ECC with a Norovirus;extreme vomiting, diahrea, and dehyrdation. This was 5 years ago. I was there for 4 hours on an IV with antibiotics and then released with script. Total cost? $3,500. I had insurance but knew this would mean an overnight stay to be "watched" in the hospital. We had to pay total out of pocket because it did not meet the deductible. Subject for another thread, but what would have hospital charges been in comparison?
Yeah, our system is quite the financial joke - on us. Gouge the patient any way possible - and when done with that, find yet another way to gouge. I've had bills come two years after service - one for a Mickey Mouse $20 oversight the hospital just had to collect.
I went to the ER once with a cut finger after trying to get the bleeding to stop on my own for a couple hours. They are just down the street from where I live and when I got there they said the copay would be more there than if I went to the urgent care the next town over (same hospital group). Since I was bleeding all over my hand and I was alone and there was nobody else in the ER at the time I just ate the cost. I have no idea if they also charged my ins more or not. They ended up gluing the cut shut instead of using stitches.
Also, our urgent care isn't open 24 hours a day so the ER is going to get the off hours stuff like this even if it's not life threatening.
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