On the 10th of June, I started feeling this all too familiar pain in the left flank of my back. The annoyance of a kidney stone. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones that suffers with kidney stones. they were first presented to me as a gift from my soon to be born second child back in 1995. From 1995 to 2005, I had a major stone ~ by that, I mean one causing pain severe enough to send me to the ER ~ about every 6 months. And then, as if by magic, they stopped. I'm sure it had a lot to do with diet changes. They stopped until Friday, June 10th, 2011. By Saturday, June 11th, the pain was so intense I could barely take a breath, and the pain had moved. It was more in the front than the back and seemed to be in my abdomen. I thought, what if this isn't a kidney stone? What if my appendix is about to burst or I have some major Gastrointestinal issue. I woke my daughter and asked her to drive me to the ER. Ahh, the ER, perhaps another blog post for another time. Needless to say, it was not a great experience. Cutting to the chase, I spent 5 hours there to find out I had a kidney stone (actually, 3, but one large enough to be lodged in my ureter, hence the pain in my abdomen and two smaller ones sitting in my kidney) and to get a pain shot with discharge instructions to follow up with my urologist. Now, let me start by saying I am not a baby when it comes to pain. I have a very high tolerance for pain. An Example: The accident I had when I was young that I have blogged about before required that I have a plastic surgery procedure on my face called skin planing every 6 months for 8 years. That's 16 procedures. The patient is given a local (in my case, Novocaine) and the procedure is done while the patient is awake. I felt all but one, because I apparently needed more Novocaine than the average dose. However, I never told my doctor until the last procedure that I could feel everything because I didn't want to hurt his feelings. All that to make this point. I don't visit the ER at the drop of a hat. When I visited on June 11th, I was asked for a $75.00 co-pay. I thought to myself, "Oh, it's gone up from $50.00 to $75.00," never looking at my card to check. Not checking the insurance before going to the ER, this was my first mistake. Me, of all people, one who used to pay insurance claims. I remember denying claim after claim because the insured had not followed procedures.
Yesterday, I received a bill from the hospital for my 5 hour stay in the ER. Are you ready for this? Over $8,000. Luckily, I was not being billed for the $8,000. I was being billed for $680.00, which might as well be $8,000, because I don't have either. I couldn't believe it! $8,000 for 5 hours! Thank God they didn't admit me! The reason I should have checked my card? I no longer have a co-pay for the ER. My insurance only covers 70% of an ER visit. I know, right now you're doing the math and saying 30% of $8,000 isn't $680.00. I did the same thing, but am deciding to just keep my mouth shut. It'll take me years to pay the $680.00 off. What if I didn't have insurance? How in the world could I or anyone else who isn't a millionaire pay an $8,000 bill? Something has to be done! Not just for people like me but for the elderly and the people with no insurance. If it's not national health care, then something needs to be done about the vicious cycles of the the hospitals and doctors charging these astronomical fees because the insurance companies are paying less and less, and the insurance companies paying less and less because the they feel the doctors and hospitals are charging too much. I don't have the answers, but somebody needs to come up with them. No one should have to decide if they can afford to be sick or pick and choose which life-saving medications they should eliminate because they are too expensive. I told my daughter who was there when I opened the bill, "If I ever have a heart attack, make the EMT's treat me in the living room because I can't afford for them to take me to the hospital." She thought I was joking. I wish I was.
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