2 weeks ago I had a migraine, worst one I've ever had, lasted over 12 hours and kept me awake all night. The following day I went to urgent care for some painkillers, doc there takes my vitals and says my heart rate and blood pressure are too high. I've had episodes like this before, and ask him could it just be a pain response to the headache and lack of sleep. He starts talking to me about throwing a clot and stroking out, and says I need to be evaluated in an ER. He even does an ECG on me and says "You're going to the ER, this ECG will tell us how you get there", implying I need an ambulance. It feels like he's trying to freak me out, and it's working. ECG at urgent care is fine, he says we can drive, but must go immediately.
Wife drives me to the ER, I tell them I'm there for a migraine (which feels much better at this point), I give them a referral slip from urgent care and they put me in a bed. Nurse takes vitals and does another ECG. After about 30 mins, doc visits me and takes vitals again, which are starting to get back to normal. Nurse puts me on an IV saline drip. Nurse comes back an hour later and takes vitals, everything normal. Doc tells me my vitals were just a pain/stress response, discharges me...
Total visit time was probably 2 hours or less. No labs, no imaging, just ECG and IV.
Claim was filed against my insurance for ~$7000.
Itemize costs are:
- $1400 for the IV
- $5000 for the ER visit (coded as level 4 visit, highest is level 5)
- $500 for ECG
I live in NYC, have a wife and son, and wife is unemployed. I have insurance, but it is HDHP and I will be paying the majority of this bill because I have not met my deductible. We have savings and we can cover this...but this hurts and makes things tight for us. I just received the bill yesterday, and contacted the billing department through online messaging (office is closed on Sunday) asking them for an explanation of the costs, especially the level 4 visit. I also told them I can't afford to pay this.
Looking for further advice about my situation. I've read some other posts on here, and my situation is not as bad as a lot of others, but I want to know what my options are. I've seen good advice, but I want to avoid anything that lets it go to collections, and I'm not sure if we would qualify for financial assistance (although I will try).
Submitted April 28, 2019 at 09:34PM by bearonthejob http://bit.ly/2ZGmxGe
