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Most absurd medical bill you have ever received?
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:26 am
What’s the most absurd medical bill you have ever received? (wherever you live!)
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amother
Magenta


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:32 am
A 1,000,000 nicu bill for 30 days
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srbmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:33 am
My father had surgery done in a hospital - probably close to 20 years ago. I remember when he got a copy of his claim that was sent to the insurance company, there was a charge there of $8 for the toothbrush they'd left in his bathroom!!!
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amother
Aubergine


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:33 am
itsmeima wrote:
What’s the most absurd medical bill you have ever received? (wherever you live!)


You won't get responses from many people outside of the US. We don't get medical bills. The only bill I've ever gotten was for 80$ for a room upgrade after the birth of my child.
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amother
Wine


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:33 am
I had to spend a month in the hospital
For monamnionic twins
Twins in the same sac
And twins in the icu
My bill was two hundred thousand dollars which I have good insurance and did not have to pay it
I was misdiagnosed
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ra_mom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:34 am
Actual bill or explanation of benefits for what the insurance paid out on your behalf?
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:39 am
ra_mom wrote:
Actual bill or explanation of benefits for what the insurance paid out on your behalf?


Actual bill, that you needed to pay or fight for...
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itsmeima




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:39 am
srbmom wrote:
My father had surgery done in a hospital - probably close to 20 years ago. I remember when he got a copy of his claim that was sent to the insurance company, there was a charge there of $8 for the toothbrush they'd left in his bathroom!!!


That's a very expensive toothbrush - in the US?
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Hashem_Yaazor




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:50 am
One Tylenol pill was $12 on a bill I had...

My most absurd bill was when I had 2 insurances. First insurance paid their portion, so hospital submitted the remainder to my secondary insurance. They accidentally paid the full total. Realized like a year later and asked for their money back. So the hospital then billed me for thousands of dollars. Took many, many phone calls to straighten out this story and figure out what had happened and why. All hospital had to do was bill secondary for the remainder; instead they decided to bill me. Years after I was there, so it was quite a shock to get any bill at all.
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amother
Sapphire


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:52 am
I got a serious cut on my finger, I was misguided by my employer at the time and was left with a gap in insurance coverage. I was a newlywed, new to the area and didn't know what to do and it was Thursday night. Hatzala was very local to us and they helped me get to the local ER. I was quickly seen by a PA, given tylenol and Dermabond, no anesthesia, no stitches, no xray. Was back home in less than 2 hours. My bill for the entire thing was $1300. $600 of which was a "doctor's fee". I think we managed to haggle the hospital portion down, but the doctor's fee was non-negotiable. A "Doctor" that I never even saw! This was before "urgent cares" were popular.

As for ridiculous EOB, when I was on Medicaid I had a pretty uneventful, non-medicated, no stitches, hospital birth, I think my only pain medication at the time was 1 percoset and a few "mega motrin." The bill to insurance was $30,000.

One more actual bill was when my baby was sent to the NICU post-delivery for something that other hospitals had treated-and-released, my other babies. I was dealing with a strange insurance that a lot of places didn't know how to process. In the end I only had to pay $200 for the doctor co-pay but it wasn't resolved until a year later.

Most absurd medical/insurance based decision was when I was expecting and my insurance sent me a letter denying my 20 week sonogram, which I had known to be the "most important" from a previous pregnancy. I got the letter the week before my scheduled appointment. I was on the phone literally most of the week prior to my appointment trying to figure out if I should keep the appointment--which I had made based on a calculated cheshbon so would've been tricky for me to reschedule. Back and forth between doctor and insurance b/c no one seemed to know what was going on and no one was getting back to me. I didn't get the green-light to go until literally I had to leave to go to the appointment as they had coded it wrong.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 6:58 am
Absurd, but in a good way. About 20 years ago we came to visit my in laws here in Argentina. While we were here we were in a car accident on the highway. I got a cut on my forehead, so I was brought with my husband to the closest hospital. It was in a small town and of course a public hospital. The doctor came in to look at me and said I needed a tetanus shot and stitches. My husband had to go to the front desk and had to pay for each thing separately before they did anything. I think the total came out to less than $20. Now it would probably be a lot more. A few days later I went to a private hospital in the city for an ultrasound because I was 3 months pregnant and that was about $200. We would have done it at the public hospital at the time, but they said the wait was a few hours.
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ra_mom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:02 am
$1,100 to remove an earring
$2,000 for a ride in an EMS bus
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unexpected




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:06 am
585$ for a throat culture at an urgent care center
My insurance paid it... but still...
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amother
Natural


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:25 am
Why is this not front and center with regard to why insurance premiums are so high? Why don't we start right here with these absurd rates doctors and hospitals bill insurance companies? Even if the ultimate payment is less, why is it fair that the starting point for putting a split on my sons pinkie is $400?
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amother
Brunette


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:41 am
itsmeima wrote:
What’s the most absurd medical bill you have ever received? (wherever you live!)


A doctor gave me orange juice because he said my blood pressure was too low (I have low blood pressure). I did not want to argue with him so I drank it. My insurance was billed over $500 for it!

I have a client who went into an ER with his family who had CO poisoning. They had medicaid, but still received a bill of $15,000 for the hyperbaric chamber. In NY State, unlike states like CA, Medicaid patients are not supposed to receive bills and it is illegal to charge them separately; however, apparently a hyperbaric chamber is not considered standard medical treatment and works like a chiropractor when it comes to insurance. I think that is insane.
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pmom




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:43 am
I had a baby 3 months ago. I arrived to the hospital to be induced at 11:59pm on 6/4 but was only admitted at 3:30am on 6/5
on my bill breakdown there was a $8900 charge for a shared room in the maternity ward for 6/4!
I'm trying to fight it and they are saying that as soon as you arrive to the hospital they reserve a room on the postpartum maternitiy wing. so they are charging me $8900 for 1 minute.
the biggest joke is that after I had my baby I waited about 6 hours in the labor room because they did not have an available room on the maternity floor yet.
let's see how this pans out...
PS I do have insurance but only covers partial. I am responsible for 3499 from this bill and don't want to pay.
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amother
Azure


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 7:59 am
Just got a $10,000 PICU bill. But $5000 was from 2017. Good morning

Last edited by amother on Mon, Jan 11 2021, 9:45 pm; edited 1 time in total
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amother
Lime


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 8:06 am
Got a bill for $255 from a random NP who seemed to have checked in on my child for 30 seconds in the nursery after he was born. I should've submitted a claim to my insurance for a surprise bill, but I panicked and just paid it. There was no one to call- P.O. box, no phone number.

I once got a bill for $2,600 for some bloodwork that my doctor did. It was right before Purim and I was panicked. I called the lab and they said, "Oh, we had you down as an out-of-pocket patient..." B'H that was straightened out.

When I delivered my oldest, the total bill to insurance was for over $55K. (I had an additional 3-day stay, a d&c for retained product, and a few other things going on.)
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amother
Salmon


 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 8:12 am
Most upsetting to me was a huge bill from the anesthesiologist after one of my births. Turns out he was out of network, so I had to pay my out of network deductible in addition to the in network deductible for my ob. And no one thought to tell me at the time that I was using an out of network doctor. Apparently they don't have to tell you, so never assume! My deductibles at the time were very high. Ugh.
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cbsp




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Sep 16 2019, 8:14 am
I kept getting charged for the gel they use for a sonogram as a DME (durable medical equipment).

Each squeeze was billed as one unit.

Sonograms were supposedly completely covered by my insurance but calling to complain about it got me nowhere.

I stopped using the provider due to this and other similar billing practices.
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