Quote:
Originally Posted by Warren Kiefer
I am inviting comments on my following post. A few weeks ago I had a serious injury to my arm that required stitches. The Village's Emergency Room PA did a wonder job and advised me to return in ten days to have the stitches removed. He said it would only take a few minutes. I did everything he advised, on the tenth day I returned to the hospital, and was not happy that I was required to go thru the entire ER admitting process, arm band and all. Two days ago I received a bill for $287 for having ten stitches removed. Today I talked with the hospital accounting dept. and was told " that's the way we do it "... I have had numerous surgeries and removing stitches were always a part of the original surgery.
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What insurance/Medicare coverages do you have? The fee sounds ridiculous, but maybe once it goes thru the billing/reimbursement system, it will be paid by your insurance (or applied to your deductible?).
Otherwise, it sounds like they had you come back to them because of CYA medical liability/malpractice possibilities they'd be sued for...... if you would have a bad result or complication along the way or in the future, such as infection, wound that won't heal, ugly scar, etc.
There are lawyers who will sue for anything and everything. Heck, some would sue because the P.A. was assigned to it instead of a nationally-known plastic surgeon!
Even if a lawsuit didn't have much chance of going to and winning in court, it's a great way for charlatans and liars to extort "free money".....It's cheaper for the hospital/doctors to just suck it up and pay an $18,000 settlement than it would be to fire up a whole legal team to fight it for years in the courts.
Although most decent people here can't conceive of such extortion, it's done every day across the country, "because they can". (Thank the lawyer-politicians in congress and state legislatures).
Keep us posted.