This rings so true. When I had graduated college I was in a 3 week lull between graduation and a job around January when I was struck with a kidney stone. No health insurance.
I took a trip to the ER around 10pm one evening in agonizing pain and was treated like a drug addict. I wasn't even triaged for over 2 hours (peak flu season) and everyone acted like I was just trying to score pain meds. Finally, after 3.5 hours, I was sent for a CT and only after the CT confirmed a stone was I given non-narcotic pain meds (Ketorolac) and send home to wait it out. Total time in the actual ER was ~1.5 hours (of a >5 hour trip) for a hospital administered dose of an NSAID only after a CT scan.
$4800.
Took me over 2 years to pay all of it off. It pretty much wrecked my personal finances (threats from collection agencies finally forced me to put it all on my credit card). I've been jaded about hospitals ever since.
I've also had another stone in the years since and was diagnosed with a ~$100 sonogram. And I used acetaminophen and ibuprofen to manage the pain for a couple weeks.
I'm still shocked that I had to wait so long and go through such a costly imaging procedure to justify a short prescription of a non-narcotic pain reliever.
I could go on another rant on an intelligent adult not being allowed to order a simple blood panel for self quantification.
I took a trip to the ER around 10pm one evening in agonizing pain and was treated like a drug addict. I wasn't even triaged for over 2 hours (peak flu season) and everyone acted like I was just trying to score pain meds. Finally, after 3.5 hours, I was sent for a CT and only after the CT confirmed a stone was I given non-narcotic pain meds (Ketorolac) and send home to wait it out. Total time in the actual ER was ~1.5 hours (of a >5 hour trip) for a hospital administered dose of an NSAID only after a CT scan.
$4800.
Took me over 2 years to pay all of it off. It pretty much wrecked my personal finances (threats from collection agencies finally forced me to put it all on my credit card). I've been jaded about hospitals ever since.
I've also had another stone in the years since and was diagnosed with a ~$100 sonogram. And I used acetaminophen and ibuprofen to manage the pain for a couple weeks.
I'm still shocked that I had to wait so long and go through such a costly imaging procedure to justify a short prescription of a non-narcotic pain reliever.
I could go on another rant on an intelligent adult not being allowed to order a simple blood panel for self quantification.