Tip of the week: Don't EVER get sick in Irvine!

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PeterUK_IHB

PeterUK_IHB

New member
I'm still reeling....



My Wife got sick with some kind of stomach virus/food poisoning, we never found out what it was, I called my Companies' Health line and after asking a few questions they said I should take Her to the ER so I did, Irvine Hospital...



We were there from around 10pm to 3am, I just got the Bill...$4,477 !!!

(now that really does deserve 3 exclamation marks).



All she got was an EKG, one shot and a 5 minute chat with the Doctor, the rest of the time was spent waiting for whatever was going to happen next.



unbelievable.
 
Oh Peter, Peter. My stomach acted up the other day. Some might dispute this. But it happened the same day we experienced the cold temperature. I had a bad case of diarrhea. Took some Imodium AD. Tummy ache gone.
 
<p>But yeah those darn hospital bills. My wife was in the hospital a few months back. And I can't believe they charged her an arm and a leg for 2 tylenol pills. I told her, the next time we'll bring our own. </p>

<p>Now I know why some accident victims refuse to be transported to the hospital. Hahaha!</p>
 
reason, we never did figure out what it was but after 2 hours of continualy throwing up she literaly collapsed on the Bathroom Floor, I had to half carry her to the Car and when we got to the ER she wanted to lay on the floor while we waited...our healthline suggested I called 911 for an Ambulance, that would have been another $1500 at least, I know that for a fact because that's how much it cost from the Backbay to a Hospital when she had a bike accident a while back.



Talking of Tylenol, a Colleague was in Hospital a few years ago and they billed him $17 for two (Tylenol) Pills.



I'm now trying to figure out at what point is it worth going for treatment?
 
<p>3 nights ago. My wife and I had dinner. She was fine. And I ended up running to the restroom twice with diarrhea. Oddly enough, she shared that one of her co-worker also had stomach pain a day before.</p>

<p>With re: to hospital charges. It's outrageous. You know that salt water they fed her intravenously? They billed her insurance $500 for that. It got to the point where we were afraid to accept any assistance from the nurses. Such things as water, towels, etc. For fear of being charge. </p>

<p>I think that's why it's a policy to send the patients out in wheelchairs. It's because the hospital know we're going to faint once we see our medical charges. Hahaha. </p>
 
<p>Here's what gets me. I heard that had we paid cash. It wouldn't have cost that much. But because we have med. insurance. They bill the insurance big time. Hmm. </p>

<p>I suppose, the hospital figures, "Hey u're hurting or you're near death. So you're willing to pay."</p>

<p>Peter, "Do you know that the motto of doctors is?".....Isn't it "To do no harm."?</p>

<p>You know as a child growing up. I admired doctors. You see them as helping sick people. Such a noble profession. But after a few encounters, I realize most of them are not in the profession to help the sick. What irks me is they hide behind their white coats as if they are so pure and clean. Sort of like angels here on earth to help humanity. But we all know that is not the case. </p>

<p> </p>
 
I am all for free enterprise and making a profit. But please call yourself a businessman or a lawyer. Being in a humanitarian profession and profiteering. IMO, doesn't go hand in hand.
 
<p>Hey, I'm way cheaper than drs. When you come in to see me you get a whole hour of my almost undivided attention (I will let myself be interrupted for the occasional rush phone call.) You could pay a dr a grand and would never get an hour of his or her time.</p>

<p>And they care nothing for patient's time.</p>

<p>There are walk-in clinics that sometimes charge reasonable prices and here in Merritt Island they are open more hours than a dr, and on Saturdays and I think a few hours on Sunday, and you just sign in and wait. We've gone there a couple of times and were very pleased. The charges were way 'way less than what the emergency room would have charged. Maybe you could see if there were some of those in irvine.</p>
 
Reason - It isn't free enterprise. The pricing of medical services is completely distorted by our confusion over whether medical care is a universal right of the patient or a service provided by a (well-trained) independent contractor. I think either plan could work with some efficiency, but trying to be both is impossible. Government programs make people think they are just spending other people's money when they go to the doctor, so they don't care about the extra services and the price. Doctors raise fees and add on extra services because government programs and insurance companies assure that they will be paid only a small percentage of the amount billed. Housing prices rose to an unreasonable level because of distortions (e.g., relaxed lending standards) in the mortgage market. Medical prices have been moving upward in an unreasonable manner for a long time because of distortions in that market. Most politicians can't even spell "economics".



A sad/funny story: My old college roomate is now a pediatrician. I saw him a couple of years ago, and he lamented about it being a 'bad' flu season. He had an empty waiting room with not enough patients. I think he was kidding, but I'm not sure.
 
Hey Peter UK, my middle daughter had that a few days ago. she started vomitting and kept it up every fifteen minutes. We took her to the doctor, not knowing what it might be. The doctor looked at her and asked a couple of questions for about two minutes and said, "Stomach flu, it's a virus. Nothing you can do. Just try to keep liquids in her. She will vomit for about 24 hours and have diarrhea for 3 or 4 days after that." He was right. And she is fine.<p>


I don't know how much it cost, but I am grateful he was there to relieve our worries.<p>


Oh yeah, I told him it seemed like he had seen this before and he said about 4000 times in the last two weeeks.<p>


I tend to think health care would less expensive if the government was not involved, but that certainly doesn't seem to be the whole story.
 
When I first moved to US 12 years ago, I was shocked to see the medical system in US was so ridiculus.



Coming down with a cold and high fever? Dont ever try calling your doctor because "the next appointment will be next week" huh??



The country that I came from (HK) has an average rating for medical system. It is controlled by the governement and the price is considered reasonable. If you want speedy service, then you can go to private doctors too. It's a fair competition. If I dont feel well, I walk down to the clinics the same day, get treated and medicine from the doctor and the next day I'll feel fine!!!
 
Emergency care is expensive because those who can pay out of pocket or have insurance are subsidizing those who cannot pay - either the homeless, immigrants here illegally, those who refuse to pay, or those on Medi-Cal (which pays only like 30% of what the true cost of service is.)



Unfortunately, we the values of America state that everyone is entitled to medical care. So next time you complain about your bill, think about it as free charity to the guy in the gurney next to you without the ability to pay. If you want governement healthcare, you will pay more taxes. Either way its a wash.



Good luck trying to find a lawyer who will give you the time of day unless you pay up front. Even if they offer to take your case "free" they end up taking the majority of the settlement or judgment. Just take a look at the paltry amount that the victims of Preist molestation got compared to the lawyer salaries. Its a shame.



Please don't blame the physicians. They are overworked and do want to help people, but are also forced to function in the medical community. I believe hospitals also want to do good generally, but there it is difficult for them to survive. Just look at the number of hospitals which have closed recently. If the money was that good, shouldn't there be a hospital waiting to pop up on every block like Starbucks?
 
Emergency care is indeed extremely expensive and even though you felt that you were just waiting there for no apparent reason, the bills probably reflect an "observation stay" during which time your wife was probably on a cardiac monitor. ED physicians also tend to "shotgun" problems meaning they'll order tons of tests just to make sure nothing is missed.





When it comes to billed rates, physicians and EDs never get the reimbursement they bill. They may have billed the insurance company $500 for a bag of saline, but they are unlikely to be reimbursed more than $50 in return. They bill high rates because every insurance's rate of payment is different, and if you underbill, you will only get paid what you bill. Because legally you're only allowed to bill the same rate to everyone, that means to make sure you maximize reimbursement, you just pick an artificially high rate to bill to make sure you get full reimbursement from every payor. BTW, cash paying patients rarely end up paying less than patients with insurance. Large payors like Blue Cross have way more negotiating power than any individual patient.





It is unfortunate that it is difficult if not impossible for the average person to decide when it is or is not necessary to bring someone to the ED. However, I would guess you wouldn't be complaining about the bill if your wife actually had something seriously wrong with her... what if it had turned out to be acute pancreatitis induced by gallstones and she had needed urgent surgery? Much better for it to have turned out to be just simple stomach flu, no?





One last note, anyone who comes to see me will have a maximum appointment wait time of 2 days, will wait in the office no longer than 10 minutes to be seen, and I will spend at least 45 minutes with them.
 
I'm from the land of Socialized healthcare, England, we do actually pay out of our paychecks in the form of "National Insurance" kinda like Social Security here, in fact, to show you're legal to work over there one of the Documents you have to show is a NI Card..



But I can tell you from personal experience that National Health Care in the UK is horrendous...Tony Blair laid off 30,000 Nurses and that's only part of it....there was a shortage to begin with.



I'm sorry Guys, I just had to vent somewhere to someone and maybe warn others that if you think you can live without going to the ER then do so....but of course it's often difficult if not impossible to make that call...
 
OK, let me check my list.





1) I shouldn't get scammed in Irvine


2) I shouldn't get sick in Irvine





Is there anything else I shouldn't do in Irvine?
 
socialized healthcare is awesome. Where I come from, you can call the hospital (even if you have smth like a common cold), and they send a doctor over to your house (the same half of the day) to check up on you, give you all the necessary prescriptions, and to decide whether you need to be hospitalized. If it is an emergency, you call the ambulance, and they will transport you to the hospital. Oh, did I mention that none of that costs you a dime?

i am not saying all public hospitals are awesome (they do get people from all social circles, so to speak :), so if you have extra money, you can go to a private clinic or a private hospital, and you will get same level of treatment as in any of quality hospitals abroad for a fraction of the cost.

Also, there is pharmaceutical companies and doctors' conspiracy obviously going on here in the U.S., since you can't even buy antibiotics w/t a prescription. What, did someone get killed b/c he took too many antibiotics? All other countries sell things like that over the counter and everyone is fine and happy about that.

I can't resist to defend lawyers also, blaylock: lawyers don't get "majority of recovery," they get 30-40% max when they work on contingency, which meant to compensate them for risk of nonpayment and covering all of the plaintiff's costs during sometimes complex and lengthy lawsuits. It is only fair, since if they don't win, they get paid $0.00. Besides, if people didn't sue each other all the time here (including suing their doctors & lawyers), malpractice insurance rates (which are incorporated in your doctor or lawyer's bill by the way would not be so high.

Anyway, have any of you tried South Coast Med Center on PCH? They are awesome and bill very reasonably in my view (like 2K for emergency room visit by my elderly father in law, with all the usual tests). Oh, and in defense of the doctors, you just have to look for ones that still treat you from a doctor's, not salesperson's perspective. I found one like that (never late for his appointments, always spends as much time with you as you need, most of your visit is with the doctor, not a nurse, respectful, not pushy about treatment, takes opinion into consideration and so on. Unfortunately, he promptly moved to Northern Cal :)) If anybody needs a recommendation for a good pediatrician who is also like that, let me know. My point is just keep looking, there are good doctors out there :)
 
blackacre-seeker,

So, I give... Where is "Where I come from" so I can apply for immigrant status. Or are there, perhaps, some downside risks to consider? If

"none of that [medical care] costs you a dime" who is paying for it? As the saying goes, There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. (Except Thursday caravans of OC Realtors in the good old days!)



"What, did somebody get killed b/c he took too many antibiotics?" Well, yes, in a manner of speaking. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics contributes to the development of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. MRSA is one example.



http://www.wwmt.com/news/school_1345523___article.html/mattawan_mrsa.html
 
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