Hospital bills and dumb things you've done.

[frankenweenie]

This is from last weekend...


I went to step over a fence at my mom's house and I fell face first onto the garbage can. I thought I had broken my nose and completely broken open my lip, so I began to try to get up. My leg seemed to be stuck on the fence. I thought it was by my tights. I went into the bathroom to check it out and there was a HUGE hole in my leg. All of the tissue from the inside of my leg was on the outside. I had impaled my leg on the fence but it threw me into instant shock. I didn't want to bother anyone, so I put a little band aid on it. Didn't matter that it was 6 inches deep and the size of a fifty cent piece around. Then in comes my mom. She made me go to the hospital. I was in right away, so that was good. I ended up being there for 12 hours. After that I was in surgery. I spent two nights in the hospital completely drugged up. Now I am out and I hurt like the dickens.




They said the wound was about 6 inches deep. It almost went completely thru my leg, but instead it went around it. I almost cut my main artery and almost hit a couple nerves. Which brings me to the point that I am a very lucky girl to still be alive and kicking. I could have lost my life or I could have ended up without use of my left leg.





Now comes the hard part. My bill is going to be roughly around 30,000 dollars. Obviously I have zero percent of that. My mom's home insurance is being extremely difficult. At this point I have no idea what I am going to do.



Discuss insane hospital visits.

[Davey Rootbeer]

holy fucking shit dude.

really glad you're allright. but 30 thousand? that just seems a bit..uh. well. excessive. guessing you didn't have your own insurance?

[frankenweenie]

Our hospital is extremely spendy. No insurance here. I applied for bridge assistance. They'll pay everything if they find me worthy. Hopefully they do!!!

Thank you!

[Davey Rootbeer]

if they don't find you worthy, i'll find them with the business end of a cantaloupe.




filled with c4

[KLEIN]

nope nothin' like that

[frankenweenie]

Sweet. I'm sure they'd appreciate it. Hahaha

I'm not going to stress about it. Whatever happens.

[t3]

So, like, what happens if you can't pay them? Do they take your leg as collateral?

[Davey Rootbeer]

no, they send a guy who re-breaks them.

which is a tad ironic actually

[KLEIN]

No, they sell the debt to a debt collection agency and forget all about it.


The debt collection people might break your legs but only if they had exhausted all their legal options

[Davey Rootbeer]

they might repossess your dvd collection.

[Takker]

once I hit my pinkie toe on the corner of my stairs and the nail fell off.

that's pretty much the worst injury I've ever had...

[exemplary citizen]

:O


Also: hi kendra!

[Myst]

Ouch. :X

Good luck with payment. Worst injury ive gotten was breakiing my foot in two places about 3 years ago. and I almost chopped off my index finger once when I was 7.

[Fistsetsfire]

I've been in the hospital enough times now to know how to work with the system, and my best advice is to talk to a case advisor about financial hardship forms. What those forms will do is establish your lack of insurance, and the level of severity your re-paymentship will be determined as. Especially when talking about a 30k bill, it's good to have someone who works for the hospital to help you along with the lessening of both physical and monetary pain.

For instance, I had an outstanding bill of 7somethousand dollars a couple of years ago that I got talked down to $2500. That included the city rescue bill, the week's-worth stay, radiology, pharmacy, "outpatient therapy", and more. Hospitals are a business, too, and the last thing any business wants to do is have someone not pay anything. No matter what your financial situation, being willing to work with someone is a lot better route to take than simply saying, "Wel'mm! I'm poor. Sorry guys. You get zilch."

On the topic of the stupidest things I've done to wind myself into an ER:Before I went to work one morning, I straight-up punched the glass part of a picture frame on my wall. The frame won. 3 stitches in between my knuckles, a pain pill, $300, and I went back to work. Best day of power tools ever. :D

[deadish]

:OOOO
DARLING

and aoiegjsognsg. i know the pain of somety-thousand dollar horsepiddle bills. and i'm poor as shit!
when i get threatening phone calls i just hang up, and when i get the umpteenth copy of a bill i just add it to my bulging (haha bulging) pirates of the caribbean folder.

yayyy for good advice!
seriously though, the goddamn medical 'industry' in this country is fucking ridiculous. i stayed in the hospital in dublin for a week: 400 euro. the same exact week here: $25,000



none of which i have paid..

[Vile]

deadish. move to canada.

[Fistsetsfire]

Psch. "Universal healthcare." In some way or another, I doubt Canada's system works any better for those with an ongoing medical condition. Everything may be "free", but it's not free somewhere down the line. I don't live in Canada, I haven't done any research into the system [for lack of desire], but there's gotta be some kind of catch involved.

Edit: ... "Bulging"? :D

[Anne]

I know nothing about my health system, but when I broke my finger when I was 13 the ACC paid for it, I think. Maybe my parents did as well?

In other news, NZ is pretty neat?

[Vile]

I don't understand the canadian health care system, either. I just know that when I split my chin open I didn't need to pay for it.

[MST3Kakalina]

Oh noes Kendra.

Feel better. :( :( :(

[Fistsetsfire]

To clarify: I'm not saying Canada's health care system sucks, I'm just suggesting it's gotta all be coming from somewhere else. For instance: The Victims of Violent Crimes fund - I just learned - comes out of every ticket you pay for in court. If you do 40 in a 35 [this is not how I "learned"], you pay for the speeding violation <I>and</I> the victim's fund. You have no choice. Canada's health care system may possibly be set up the same way.