The American was billed at $ 5750 for bandage and ice in the emergency room

October 19 2016, Jessica Pell fainted, hitting her head on the table and hurting her ear. She asked for help from the emergency room at Hoboken University Medical Center, where she was bandaged and given an ice pack.

Фото: Depositphotos

The woman received no other treatment, she was not diagnosed, but billed for services in the amount of $ 5 751, writes Vox.

And her case is not unique - emergency departments often bill patients hundreds or even thousands of dollars simply for seeking help, some of them did not even invite these people beyond the waiting room, and there was also no doctor's examination.

Pell left the emergency room when she found out that the plastic surgeon in it is not part of the network of doctors whose services are covered by her insurance. Instead, she decided to show the damaged ear to the surgeon entering her insurance network in order to save money.

Pell Insurance paid the 862 Dollar Emergency Department, which it considered a “reasonable and reasonable” fee for the services rendered. The woman had to pay 4 989 dollars from her pocket.

The hospital declined to comment on the invoice, however, according to the girl, recalled him after journalists became interested in the situation.

But her case is not the only one. Over the past six months edition Vox collected more than 1000 bills from emergency departments, presented to journalists by readers of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, trying to figure out how prices are formed which emergency departments refuse to advertise.

Emergency services in all cases turned out to be very expensive. Moreover, patients may face huge bills, even if they have not received treatment. Some patients themselves refused treatment because they found out that the hospital was outside their insurance network, or simply because they were better, but they still were billed in hundreds or thousands of dollars. These fees often exceeded bills from another hospital, where they eventually received treatment.

Caroline Wallace, for example, brought her 4-year-old daughter Elizabeth to the emergency room in Texas. The girl fell, hitting the table, and cut her eyebrow. Emergency department Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital It was very busy, they waited about an hour. The only medical care Elizabeth received at this establishment was the measurement of her body temperature as a medical assistant.

Ultimately, without waiting for help, Wallace drove her daughter to another clinic, where she was stitched.

But the bill that came later surprised the woman: 300 dollars for the services of the emergency room itself and 669 dollars for the services of a medical assistant who measured the temperature of Elizabeth. After the woman’s protests, the hospital canceled the 300 dollars bill, leaving a bill for the services of a physician assistant.

Hospital managers claim that such high fees help them to be around the clock ready for any emergency.

But experts studying this issue point out that prices seem arbitrary and vary widely from hospital to hospital.

Between the 2009 and 2015 years, prices for emergency medical services in the US increased by 89%.

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