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ER usually only splints the injury and tells you to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon. Orthopedic surgeon won't see you without insurance, whether you need surgery or just need a cast. So if you don't have insurance, you may learn from the ER that you need surgery but you won't find anyone to do it until you have insurance or get on some sort of assistance program.
Depends on where you live....
Here in NC we never turn patients away that need surgery for a fracture whether they can pay or not, if they are seen in our ED we treat them including surgery if indicated...
You won't get an elective procedure like joint replacement surgery but trauma surgery? Absolutely....
Private practice Ortho groups don't have to see uninsured patients (and won't) but Duke and UNC don't turn them away....
Here in NC we never turn patients away that need surgery for a fracture whether they can pay or not, if they are seen in our ED we treat them including surgery if indicated...
You won't get an elective procedure like joint replacement surgery but trauma surgery? Absolutely....
Private practice Ortho groups don't have to see uninsured patients (and won't) but Duke and UNC don't turn them away....
I'm in TX, so maybe it's different here.
When I broke my leg, I paid the ER $400 before they would do x rays and give me an ace bandage. They said I needed surgery but they wouldn't do it and not to come back to them for the same injury. I had to get on the county health program which took three weeks, and then I was able to have the surgery I needed. I think if I'd gone to the county ER, they would have done surgery or put a real cast on that night, but EMS would only take me to the nearest ER.
Thanks to candle wax on my foot I slipped and fell hard on my elbow. I have no carpet just hard concrete floors. So the fall was extra brutal.This happened on my dominant so that sucks even more. My elbow has a huge lump now and it hurts. I took pain medication, and that brought some of the pain down considerably. Elevation helps with the pain as well. It's numb and painful to the touch, and like I said there's a lump. Also my wrist was tingling for a bit there,but that stopped. I want to know is anything broken or is this just a sprain? I have no insurance so I'm trying my best not to go to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. I mean if it was broken would I even be able to type this?
Sounds like you need to see a doctor and have x-rays taken. You could have broken a bone or two. My husband broke his elbow a few years ago. He had a bone chip. It took 10 weeks to heal. He had a ton of swelling for the first couple of weeks. And lots of pain. He was given pain pills and his arm was set. He didn't know until the end of the 10 weeks if it had set correctly or if he was going to need surgery. Thankfully it healed correctly and no surgery was needed.
When I broke my leg, I paid the ER $400 before they would do x rays and give me an ace bandage. They said I needed surgery but they wouldn't do it and not to come back to them for the same injury. I had to get on the county health program which took three weeks, and then I was able to have the surgery I needed. I think if I'd gone to the county ER, they would have done surgery or put a real cast on that night, but EMS would only take me to the nearest ER.
i am not sure if your surgical situation was totally an insurance issue. i went to the county ER after i slipped down some stairs (damn croc slippers) and had displaced fractures (completely snapped in half) of both the bones mid forearm. since they werent compound fractures, they sent me home with a sling, an inflatable cast, a few days of vicodin and told me to find a surgeon as they needed to be plated v. just reset. to receive surgery in the ER, it sounded like it needed to be more life saving surgery to be operated on there and then - especially in an orthopedic situation. i am sure it varies by hospital, but in this hospital they didnt have ortho surgeons in the ER, so doing the surgery i needed that night would have required calling in an ortho specialist which they were not going to do since my injury, although fairly bad as far as fractures go, did not meet the level of emergency required to make that call. back in that day i had what would be considered the rolls royce of health care plans, and it didnt matter one bit.
to the OP, if you decide to go to the doctor i would just go straight to an ortho specialist for elbows. if you are going to spend $$ i would spend it on a doctor who specializes in that kind of injury and part of the body and not waste it only to hear you need to see a specialist anyway.
If you were in Australia you would simply toddle off to the local clinic where you would be treated (and X-rayed, etc. if need be) and it would cost you ...NOTHING! Last year I broke my ankle. From my first visit to the hospital to the subsequent visits that included X-rays, cast, crutches, moon-boot, etc. it cost me ...NOTHING!
Quote:
Originally Posted by suzy_q2010
You do not pay taxes to cover medical care?
Yep, of course we do. We all pay taxes, as do you. In this case, however, you actually see your medical care taxes at work. Everyone's health-care is subsidized by everyone and I can assure you that knowing a visit to the doctor will be bulk-billed is a tax worth paying. Do you remember when the doc would visit you at home if you were too ill or simply preferred not to go to the clinic ...y'know, the old 'bedside manner' of medical care? Well, we have 'doctor to your door' which also costs 'nothing'.
Yep, of course we do. We all pay taxes, as do you. In this case, however, you actually see your medical care taxes at work. Everyone's health-care is subsidized by everyone and I can assure you that knowing a visit to the doctor will be bulk-billed is a tax worth paying. Do you remember when the doc would visit you at home if you were too ill or simply preferred not to go to the clinic ...y'know, the old 'bedside manner' of medical care? Well, we have 'doctor to your door' which also costs 'nothing'.
Yep, of course we do. We all pay taxes, as do you. In this case, however, you actually see your medical care taxes at work. Everyone's health-care is subsidized by everyone and I can assure you that knowing a visit to the doctor will be bulk-billed is a tax worth paying. Do you remember when the doc would visit you at home if you were too ill or simply preferred not to go to the clinic ...y'know, the old 'bedside manner' of medical care? Well, we have 'doctor to your door' which also costs 'nothing'.
This is why I put quotes around 'nothing', as did you. Everything costs something ...stands to reason. However, the benefits of taxes paid per individual for medical care far outweighs the financial burden that an individual could face without it. This system has proven time and time and time again to be effective. Why the U.S. is so slow on the uptake to adopt a similar system is somewhat mind-boggling. By the way, ambulance and paramedic service is 'free' also. It's paid for by a small levy on one's quarterly electricity bill ...WELL worth it!
^^^Yep, Australia, great country, loved visiting it. However, this is the USA, where in order to afford paying for having for your firstborn, you have to sell your firstborn, unless you’re on welfare, then you get freebies. Please tell all of us broke-from-paying-medical-bills Americans how to immigrate to Australia, I’m sure many of us will be there tomorrow.
To the OP, don’t know if anyone asked if you can fully extend your arm, then bend it up as far as normal without excruciating pain. If you can’t, based on the experience my SIL had, you most likely have a fracture & need to see an ortho doc...family practice, urgent care, ER are wastes of time for this.
Fractures come back to haunt you with osteoarthritis (pain from hell) that never stops as you age...voice of experience here.
^^^Yep, Australia, great country, loved visiting it. However, this is the USA, where in order to afford paying for having for your firstborn, you have to sell your firstborn, unless you’re on welfare, then you get freebies. Please tell all of us broke-from-paying-medical-bills Americans how to immigrate to Australia, I’m sure many of us will be there tomorrow.
Just adopt a similar medical health system and stay where you are.
Just adopt a similar medical health system and stay where you are.
I lived in Australia for a while and I would like to be a citizen as well, your country wont let me. And I agree I find it very frustrating that we get not much benefit we can see in our everday lives for our tax dollar. The challenge is doing those programs like nationalized health for a country as large as the US. Obviously not a policy expert, but I suspect it is much more difficult to do this in a country of 350M v. 24M. And not sure why you felt the need to gloat, not offering any advice to the OP.
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