Comment Re:You need to get out more... (Score 1) 675
Amen to this.
I was involved in a fairly serious motor-vehicle accident last October. On the freeway, at freeway speeds, with airbag deployment involved.
I and the driver of the other vehicle were taken to the hospital in an ambulance ('just to be sure' because of airbag deployment, despite strong evidence that my only injury was to my ankle -- nothing wrong with taking care in these cases).
I arrived at the ER, was looked at for perhaps 90 seconds by a doctor (no, not much of an exaggeration if any here) and they declared I had a sprain and that was that. I was stuck in a corner, eventually an orderly brought me an ACE bandage, and I limped out (not even given crutches, yay!) and met my roommate who was picking me up.
I don't know what the charge for the ambulance ride was, but I do know that the bill for the hospital was $2,400.
Not one X-ray, no lab work at all, just 90 seconds of a doctor declaring I simply had a sprain.
(For the record, I had more than a sprain; there was in fact a bone chip which is still causing me difficulty and hopefully will be removed surgically soon.)
So, yeah. Health care billing is about sixteen different kinds of jacked up.