Bum’s Rush by a Twin Cities’ Hospital?
Let’s say you went to get an oil change for your car. Upon driving in, you asked the attendant what the price would be for the service. “I don’t know,” he replies.
He hands you a telephone number to call for pricing information. You find yourself on hold for several minutes but finally discover that the oil change will cost $50.
“Wait a minute,” you tell the attendant. “That is way more than I’m prepared to pay.”
“Too late,” you’re told. “The job is already done.”
Outrageous? Sure it is. But that is what reportedly happened to to a Hopkins, MN couple during an emergency room visit at a Twin Cities’ hospital.
Stories such as these are always difficult to unravel. One always questions whether the story is true and/or complete. The public is woefully ignorant on the subject of health care delivery and providers have a history of not being terribly forthcoming in explaining things. On top of that, news reporters are notorious for inaccuracy when writing about health care.
Nevertheless, this story has the ring of truth to it, in my opinion.
First of all, why couldn’t the hospital give pricing information when requested? Answer – there is no good reason, expect for the fact that no one in health care knows (or seemingly cares) what anything costs. To simply give the customer a phone number so he can investigate the matter himself is ridiculous.
Secondly, there was no reason that the scan could not have waited until the customer’s questions were answered to their satisfaction. No emergency existed. For the hospital to rush this procedure in the manner reported and not allowing the customer to make an informed decision is just a poor business practice.
If this situation occurred as reported, then I’m afraid that the hospital in question is way out of bounds.
It is plausible to me. I am sure that this is what happens when nobody (even the hospital) doesn’t know what to charge people. They don’t know because they charge different people different amounts due to what group coverage they do and don’t have. Giving her a CT scan that quickly? That’s a little strange, unless they thought something serious was going on.
OTOH, I have had first hand experience with Methodist’s billing department after a couple of different hospitalizations in my family. Twice I had items show up on a bill that were unexplained. I called and both times I was told they they would have to investigate the bill and I would have an answer in TWO weeks. Once it turned out to be a mistake (We owed no money). The second time, it turned out that we got charged $200 to watch an 20 year old educational video that was supposed to explain a procedure. Nobody told us beforehand that we would be charged $200 for the privilege of watching it. Nobody even asked us if we wanted to watch it. A nurse simply popped the video into a VCR in the hospital room. Blue Cross wouldn’t pay for it and I can’t say I blame them. I felt taken.
In other respects, Methodist is a great hospital, with excellent doctors and nurses in my experience. The billing department (and the food) are glaring exceptions to the rest of the place.
These people could have refused treatment and left, I guess. But they wanted to be treated, they just wanted to know how much something cost so they could make a decision. Healthcare is the only place we would allow this to happen. And this is not about private vs. government healthcare. it’s about the mess that healthcare is today for anyone caught between having most or all of the tab picked up by uncle sam or a private insurer. If you try to navigate getting treated without either, the system doesn’t know what to do with you. It does not compute.
Margaret
21 Mar 09 at 9:47 pm