WWYD? Woman gets ER bill even though she wasn't seen

[Opti]

www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/woman-gets-688-35-er-bill-for-spending-7-hours-in-the-waiting-room-without-being-treated/ar-AAQcfsC?ocid=msedgntp

A Georgia woman spent seven hours waiting for emergency room staff to check out her head injury, and left before receiving any treatment. But the real headache began when the hospital billed her almost $700 for the visit a few weeks later.



“I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name. I wasn’t seen at all,” Taylor Davis told a local Fox affiliate.

She said that she went to Emory Decatur Hospital ER in July for a head injury, and waited as long as she could stand it. “I sat there for seven hours. There’s no way I should be sitting in an emergency room … for seven hours,” she said. So she went home. And was charged $688.35 for the ordeal.



Davis said she called the hospital after receiving the surprise medical bill, because she was convinced it was a mistake. But she says that she was told, “it’s hospital protocol even if you’re just walking in and you’re not seen. When you type in your Social [Security number], that’s it. You’re going to get charged regardless,” she said.

WWYD if this happened to you?

[billisonboard]

File in a small claims court for $688.36 - pain and suffering. 

[laterbloomer]

It can not be legal for them to charge you for walking in the door. It amazes me that they think calling it policy is acceptable.

[Tiny]

What Would I Do?

Well, depending on what I saw was happening in the ER waiting room - How busy was it? I probably would have asked WHEN I was going to get looked at? If I was in the emergency room - I would most likely be in some sort of pain or bleeding or broken (or seeing double with a concussion) something I could take care of at home or that my "nurse friends" couldn't patch me up... That said - if the "line of people in the ER" wasn't moving - I'd probably be asking for where I could go for help... Alternatively - if it appeared I had been "forgotten" I'd be asking where I was in the line for service (to remind them I was there).

If I was going to leave the ER after signing in... I would have talked with the "intake" people who entered my info into their system, to find out how I could be removed from it/the line for care.

If I signed out without getting to an exam room or area (ie no care) and then billed... I'd be after the Hospital and my Insurance to reverse the charge.   

[swamp]

I’d tell them “fuck you. I’m not paying. Sue me.”

[Tiny]

ahhh. A bill that goes to collections - the gift that keeps on giving.

[dondub]

Reminds of an imbroglio here with UW Med. A person with my name ( legit except the middle one) had skipped on a bill. They found me and started in. Don’s address was in Alaska and this Don had never been there. It went on for months and then they threatened to send me to collections.

So I hopped in my car and drove to the hospital and went to their credit office ad demanded they prove it was me. They had not believed me when I gave my SS# over the phone. So I whipped out the SS card and my DL and said prove it or I’ll sue YOU for harassment. It ended right there.😎

[kadee79]

In case ya'al aren't aware of it.  If you dispute something that goes to collections...you can put a letter of explanation into your credit file...do the same letter to all 3 since we now have 3!  I did that years ago & the phony bill finally got thrown out.  That was way back in the late 60's!

[Deleted]

In my experience, if you have health insurance and go to an in network hospital, if the hospital tries to bill you for something crazy, they have to deal with your health insurance.

I had a hospital try to make me pay $12k for treatment I did not agree with and refused to sign any paperwork for, for one of my children. They basically did what they wanted to and I was powerless to stop them. My insurance would not pay for it, so they tried to make me pay while they filed appeals with my insurance. After the 3rd and final appeal, my insurance company sent me a letter saying that their Doctors had determined that the treatment at the hospital was not warranted, and they would not pay. It also said that unless I had signed something taking financial responsibility, I did not have to pay it either. I had refused to sign ANY documents at the hospital, so I did not have to pay it either. That was then end of it.

That only worked because I had health insurance and they had a contract with the hospital, for the hospital to be “in network”.

I am sure things would have been different if I didn’t have insurance. Which is fucked up, because it seems like you are at hospital’s mercy if you have no health insurance and I guess they can charge and bill you for whatever they want.

But in my case, I’m also sure the $12k crap would not have happened if I didn’t have “good insurance”. That is what the hospital staff kept saying, I had “good insurance”, so I saw it as a money grab from the beginning, not what was best for my child. And I am still happy they had to eat that $12k bill because of what they did. The whole thing still makes me angry when I think about it and that was over 15 years ago.

[CCL]

Pink, I'm thinking the fact you didn't sign anything may have helped your case as much as the insurance company did. Or maybe your insurance company is a very different from mine?

I've had numerous claims, well, actually pretty much every one in recent years, that my insurance refused to pay. It was up to me to argue with everyone involved to get the claims paid. Some were sent to collections and it was on me to get that corrected, too. The fact that the providers were in network didn't matter in getting payment. That was only used to determine the amount that was finally paid.