Hi PF!
Since we get a lot of stories of people with medical debt in the US, and I recently horribly broke a limb, I thought I'd share my experience.
The quick and dirty (since I don't want to doxx myself):
I fell in mid-February and broke an arm right in two. Thankfully, a friend was able to get me to the ER. A few weeks later, I ended up needing surgery to fix it (overnight stay at surgery center). I did have to take off a lot of work, but was not put on (unpaid) medical leave. I had a lot of paid sick time stocked up that I pretty much burned through.
Here's a spreadsheet of my costs so far. I can expect a few more PT visits that will cost $75 because I have reached my max covered visits (due to some past PT visits and my plan year running July-June):
| Visit/Charge | Cost |
|---|---|
| ER Copay | $300 |
| ER Imaging | $26.41 |
| PCP Copay | $20 |
| Ortho Copay | $40 |
| Ortho Copay 2 | $40 |
| Functional Brace | $5.11 |
| Ortho Copay 3 | $40 |
| Surgery prepayment | $298.10 |
| Surgery postpayment | $876.32 |
| PT Eval | $20 |
| PT Copay(x4) | $80 |
| 4th & 5th Ortho visits | $0 |
| Total | $1,745.94 |
Some caveats:
1. I am fortunate to have pretty good insurance through my employer. I had not hit my deductible before this.
2. I had to go to the PCP even though I had already gone to the ER, in order to get a referral. This infuriated me, but only cost $20.
3. These bills have trickled in over the past 2 months, not all at once.
4. I had other costs, like prescription/OTC pain killers and new pants and bras because I couldn't put on my old ones. I also bought a grabber thingy, which may have been the best purchase of my life. This all ran around $150.
5. When I did go back to work, I had a neighbor who could drive me. This prevented any public transit costs.
6. Follow-ups with the orthopedist within 90 days of surgery are free on my insurance plan.
Anyway, I thought this might be useful for people who are always worried about financial ruin due to medical costs. I had an overnight stay at a surgical center, and this all came in under $2k. My emergency fund absorbed some of it, but so did my normal monthly budget because of the staggered nature of the bills. Medical billing takes a long time. I just paid the bill this week for my surgery from 6 weeks ago.
Final comment: ask for a CD of your X-Rays, CAT, etc. when you're at the ER- it saves a lot of time later! And buy stool softeners if you're on opioids :)
Edit: If there's interest, I can also post what the surgical center/brace/imaging/etc. billed my insurance, as the costs are absolutely insane. E.g., I remember the surgical center submitted a ~$38,000 bill that a total of about $2,100 was actually paid by me and my insurance. But someone without insurance would receive the $38k bill.
Submitted April 23, 2017 at 09:40AM by confettispolsion http://ift.tt/2p5RC4g
