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Its the hardest to get into because it pays the most.
Every doctor needs a xray to figure out what is going on inside the body.
I makes logical sense this would be one of the technical devices to use and they cost alot because of what they do. There is alot of money to be made and costs because they have you by the balls when your talking about xrays we have no altervative.
As a Xray tech your not doing surgries you place the body based on the possible injury and if you were to watch someone do the job in real-life anyone who has some computer skills and probably could learn the job. Tech jobs and medical jobs arent as diffucult as we make them out to be and I am sure for some people they are diffucult but that is why they charge so much.
LOL you have no idea what you're talking about. Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine is Extremely difficult. The pay is high for a reason. They don't do a 5 year Residency after Med School for nothing. An X-Ray Tech is not a Radiologist.
Nurses are not trained to read/interpret x rays, ultrasounds or CT's. A nurse that does that is placing his/her license in jeopardy. That is out of their scope of practice. Nurses do nursing diagnosis. It is illegal for a nurse to perform a medical diagnosis. Call the PA Board of Nursing (or any other State Board of Nursing) and ask them.
Machines are tools. They provide data that has to be analyzed and interpreted by a properly educated, trained, certified and experienced human being.
Medicine is not just science. It is also a practice and an art. Machines can provide objective data, but you also have to take into account subjective data (information gathered upon examination or given by the patient) to arrive at the right differential diagnosis.
Each patient is different. Not every heart attack is the same. I have had quite a few patients who have presented to the ER with chest pains and the EKG done came out "normal" (sinus rhythm). An hour or two later, blood tests revealed elevated cardiac enzymes. Another example: you can apply a simple pulse oximeter to a patient with difficulty breathing and obtain a 100% saturation rate. Yet, same patient can be DEAD 20 minutes later from a massive pulmonary embolism (PE). I saw this happen twice while working as a patient care technician. Diagnosing a PE can be difficult and tricky. It takes experience and a certain amount of intuition (here is where the practice and the art come in) to identify a PE quickly.
As far as first year medical students go, they just know enough to kill somebody. If you trust them so much, put your life into the hands of one and let me know how it goes, provided you are still alive to tell the tale.
It takes a trained person to draw blood, initiate an IV, manage the IV (check for occlusions, infiltration, etc), perform drug calculations, administer medication, and assess/monitor for reactions/results/efficacy, etc. The x ray tech has to perform calculations before shooting the film. The respiratory tech has to perform calculations also. The lab has many safety and quality control protocols that are needed to avoid mistakes. Before they can analyze the blood, they need to put it in a centrifuge to "spin it" and separate the blood, if needed. The list goes on and on. Bottom line, machines cannot replace the human element.
An EKG (electrocardiogram) is simple to perform. Yet, it needs to be interpreted. A "machine" cannot do that. I have personally seen three doctors argue over an EKG interpretation.
It is not as simple as you think.
That "flat rate" you spoke about was for the hospital. Medical imaging (CT and ultrasound), maybe even the radiologist, the lab, and the ER provider have yet to be paid. They will do their own billing and collection. They will get paid or your girlfriend's credit will be trashed. The bills may not come in for 30 to 90 days, but they will come.
Machines will not replace the human element I agree.
People go to school and spend thousands and thousands to complete school.
So for someone to read a CT and ultrasound what do you think that cost was assuming he was to charge as a individual. Think of every person that is "trained" to read it from schooling and experience. 1,000 dollars, 200 dollars. What is the price. I am sure the bill will tell me that price but I get the feeling it is not doing to the person. Does it vary from place to place or tech to tech. IF you have a radiologist who has 15 years experience or 5 years is salary will be different does that matter in the charge. He doesnt get that money directly then who does?
Just seems to be we put a big deal of trust in this "knowledge" yet we really dont know the cost to have someone read it and tell us his professional op.
When the bill comes in 30 to 90 days I will review this again, but I guess what I am saying is we have lived in the modern era of meds for awhile now. If techonolgy makes it easier and fast this also lets doctors and other decisions become easier with a higher level of trust in fixing the problem. I can think of many people who go to college leave college and dont know anything until they actually start doing the work. Even then it takes time and experiences and MISTAKES to know the difference.
Facts are everyone will spend their lifes savings and everything they own to LIVE another day if they get sick. If your healthy nobody wants to spend half their paycheck on it. So how can you work and live your life without draining your wallet every month even if your healthy and everytime your sick.
Or should we all just give ourselves over to doctors are our life and all the money we make so they can keep us alive.
The medical industry knows one thing... if you want to live you need to give us money and that is the bottom line we can live without TV, cars and can make our own food but when it comes to health your screwed. That is the REAL cost when someone sits down and figures out the BILL! It has nothing to do with knowledge and really more about we have no other options as people we can't fix ourselves. What are they paying these radiologist 500,000 a year. With what they are charging you would think that is how much they have to pay them. The F'ing president makes 200,000 K I make 95K and dont have to "save lives" so you tell me when you look at that 2,000 charge explain this wisdow of all the greatness you applied in your post above.
I bet if I sat down 5 radiologist techs and gave them my chart and asked how much to read it. I would get a bidding war and get the real cost or close to a real number when dealing with this knowledge and just how common it can be.
I'm not saying radiologist are dumb or dont have important jobs but I think the technology and amount of common knowledge has been present long enough to bring costs to a reasonable number.
PS when the insurance companies get the bill I can think of many insurance companies who sit and have to make the calls to figure out why the cost was so high. After all if you have insurance they charge double.
You tell me.
Well I guess people could start asking for a price quote for the repair bill before accepting treatment. That way they could decide whether the price is worth repair or accepting pain and death would be prefered to financial ruin.
Not at this hosipital maybe the one in NY were you live. But this is in PA right outside of Philadelphia. Maybe this hositipal is doing something your hositipal has no concept of its called common sense prices. Really at this point reading a radiology chart and xrays is something nurses can do, even first year medical school students. A surgery, and actually MEDICAL treatments I could see the costs not to USE A MACHINE and read the results to a person! Today take blood, take urine and use machines to test for results of which take about 5 minutes of work. They have simplied reults and blood lab work so that I think monkeys might be doing the tests in a few years. Back about 35 years ago they had to mix and do many many tests with the blood of which was time consuming, etc.
Well I guess people could start asking for a price quote for the repair bill before accepting treatment. That way they could decide whether the price is worth repair or accepting pain and death would be prefered to financial ruin.
Well I think the people should know even if they have insurance so they can figure out how much the insurance is not going to pay. We walk into ER's have no idea the costs and then months later say BTW lol lol lol
the joke is on you.
Seems kinda dishonest not to tell the people what the cost is.
Seems like they make it up as they go.
Well, if it is truly an emergency, they don't have time to prep you on every cost.
I find it hard to believe you both would truly believe that the ER could charge a flat rate that would cover EVERYTHING they do in an ER.
Well let me explain the process you go into registration which is just your name ss etc, then someone checks your viritals. Then you go to ER bed number blah blah.
Later as this goes on someone comes to gather more info.
They bring a computer and input your insurance info, and more data like where you live, work etc.
Seems to me in this system they should discuss the price, cost and payment options if they have any.
I dont know in going to get a service done of which I except to pay for I think the person should know the cost.
Maybe if they knew the cost they would walk right out and die instead.
Well after a few days of my girlfriends right side hurting and reviewing the facts and symptoms it was time to take a ride to the ER.
My girlfriend has no insurance due to the fact that she are part time employee at Kohl's and hasn't worked enough hours to qualify. Of which we are looking to continue to put pressure on kohl's for hours while we see other employment opportunities that might give her the benefits and insurance that is needed.
A way we get checked in they do blood tests, STD tests, vagina exam, CT exam and once the appendix was ruled out and the kidneys for stones.
An IV was started was given 2 morphine drips as well. Then it was on to a ultrasound of which showed a ovarian cyst had burst and we were discharged.
So we had no insurance... are you ready for this..
They have a flat rate for people without insurance and which covers EVERYTHING IN THE ER!!
425 dollars.
If she had insurance just take guess how much the bill would have been and if you had to pay 80/20 and or if the insurance company did cover everything.
If you didn't have the 425 dollars, you have the option based on income for state assistance and my favorite the hospital would turn it over as a charity case of which I'm sure gets written off as a tax deduction in the end.
While many of us deal with issue it appears maybe we should review why we can pay flat rates to ER visits of 425 when the insurance company would get billed high prices.
Seems to me we dint need government run health care we need to review the costs of these services and figure out more options for people.
Hospital is called ARIA Medical Hospital in langhorne PA look it up
True story and not a troll.
Enjoy.
This story is indicative of how hospitals have run for a long time. When Medicare rates were forced upon them, it put a strain on their resources.
Many people donate funds to hospitals to help offset the care for the indigent in the community.
I know a woman who was diagnosed with cancer and reached her $1 million maximum provided by her insurance company. The Hospital absolved her so she could die in peace knowing she didn't leave a debt.
The problems were not with the hospitals and the doctors, it was/is the insurance companies, Big Pharma, and Big Daddy (The Government) who happen to all be sleeping together having a 3-way.
They can't discuss the price with you as they're not going to know what they are doing until they assess you. Until she was seen by a doctor, they could not order a CT or Ultrasound, blood work, etc. They cannot stop before each procedure and explain the cost. To discuss anticipated price with every individual in the ER would TOTALLY overburden an already overburdened system.
That's the type of thing that can be done in a doctors office prior to a visit, not in an Emergency Room.
If your GF's side was hurting for days, she would have been better off paying $50 to an Urgent Care clinic, instead of going to an ER, since it seems you had the money and were willing to pay $425.
Well let me explain the process you go into registration which is just your name ss etc, then someone checks your viritals. Then you go to ER bed number blah blah.
Later as this goes on someone comes to gather more info.
They bring a computer and input your insurance info, and more data like where you live, work etc.
Seems to me in this system they should discuss the price, cost and payment options if they have any.
I dont know in going to get a service done of which I except to pay for I think the person should know the cost.
Maybe if they knew the cost they would walk right out and die instead.
Discussing prices in an ER are you serious?
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