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Hi,
I am seeking some advice on how to dispute my medical ER bill? or ask for some assistance. See below for details - The ER couldnt even diagnose me with Strep Throat (totally stunned about this). It turned out to be totally useless to go ER, but I am stuck with a bill in the thousands.
Details:
I recently had to visit ER, after I had a severe sore throat, and very high fever. I suspected it was strep which i was very upfront about. The initial rapid strep test came out negative, and the doctor just gave me lbuprofen (which I had already been using before coming to ER) and asked me to drink lots of water. After 3 hours of wait, and 4 hours in ER, I got discharged with a prescription for more lbuprofen.
It was after a full week of getting discharged, that the ER contacted me back, saying that my culture came back positive for strep. I went to my doctor with this new information, and he was quite stunned that the hospital took a week to get back to me, when it should be a 24-48 hour thing.
The ER really isn't there to handle strep cases unless you have strep that has spread throughout your body, like to your heart, and is killing you and you need urgent hospitalization. If you had run of the mill strep throat, you wasted the ER's time. It sounds like the ER did what it was supposed to do - gave you meds for the pain, ran the tests - the rapid came back negative, so they sent cultures to the lab. The only issue is it took so long to hear the results, which confirmed you had strep. I'm wondering why you didn't just go to your doctor in the first place, or why you sat there, apparently, with strep for a week before you got the results and finally went to your doctor to get antibiotics. Or why you didn't call the hospital to ask where your results were, especially if you still had the pain and fever and weren't getting any better.
It's possible that a severe sore throat and fever can be viral. I've had wicked viral infections with sore throats worse than ones I've had with strep. That explains the Advil and water advice from a doctor who was probably wondering why you came in with such a thing.
I'm not sure if you even have any options. You went, they spent money to give you basic treatment and run tests, and ultimately you got a diagnosis. The ER isn't there to diagnose you with strep and give you antibiotics - it can obviously do so, but that's why there are primary care physicians and walk-in urgent care clinics. The ER is there for emergencies or otherwise other issues primary care doctors and even walk-in clinics may not be best equipped to handle and treat. The ER staff diagnosed you with strep, they just didn't do so in a timely manner.
Your story is a bit strange though... you let suspected strep throat fester for at least a week waiting for lab results? You shouldn't do that, that's potentially dangerous. If something like this ever happens again (hopefully it doesn't), call and bother them if it's been more than 2 days until they tell you the results. Urgent cares are probably cheaper, btw.
Anyway, if you have insurance, they may cover all or most of it (less your deductible). But if your insurance company deems that your emergency room visit wasn’t an emergency they may not cover.
It was in the middle of the night and I had very high grade fever, which kept rising, and high heart rate so I had to go to ER.
At that time, I had 104.5F and my heart was pounding like crazy (and I just got super scared, because it got worse in just 1 hour)
I wasn't aware of the fact that I was supposed to call them about the culture test. I assumed that if it came out positive, they would let me know. I had started getting better (temperature had started dropping) so thats why I didnt annoy them.
I understand your frustration. This is late advice but it might help someone in the future...
When you give your email address, they should sign you up for the patient portal. The portal should have all test results and will send you an email when they are posted. If you use this hospital, its worth making sure that this is in place.
I think the portal may have detailed billing info also. Since you are on CD I'm assuming you are not a tech phob.
Also, they should ask for primary doctor, who also gets the test results. Usually the primary will call even before its posted on the portal if its a concerning result. I think annual primary doctors visits are usually free for most health plans so its worth finding a primary to call in the middle of the night when things like this happen.
When you call to inquire about your bill, you should probably ask why these 2 things didn't happen in your case.
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