Cook Children's Hospital = CROOKS!

[Madison]

Cook Children's Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas is nothing more than a bunch of crooks!

Here's the backstory:

On December 1st, 2010, my wife was taking our son to school. Unfortunately she made a left hand turn on a green light and just flat didn't see a car coming the other direction. She got most of the way through the intersection, but still got hit in the back passenger door and wheel area, which spun her car about 270 degrees (45 MPH hit). The accident totaled out her new 2010 Hyundai Tuscon since it damaged the frame/suspension beyond repair. Here is a photo of the damage:



Now as you can see, the front passenger door is untouched. Got bent a little at the edge and didn't want to open, but other than that, it was unscathed. You can also see that the suspension is shot, rendering the car useless as far as driving. The car that hit her had front end damage of course, and it wasn't able to be driven either. 911 was called to report the accident and get tow trucks for the vehicles. An ambulance showed up and checked everyone out. The other lady was fine, even her little dog in the passenger seat was fine. My wife was shaken up, but fine. The kiddo was fine other than a scratch from the seat belt across his throat and a small bump on the head from the plastic piece that holds the seat belt. However, the paramedics and the officer all "Highly Suggested!" to my wife that she allow them to take the kiddo to the hospital to be checked out. Frazzled, shaken up, and not wanting to look like a bad parent, she allowed it, even though the kiddo knew what day it was, what he had for breakfast, could add 4+3, could walk around, etc, etc. Basically he was going to go to the hospital to get checked out over nothing, he's had worse injuries just playing outside with friends.

The paramedics inform her that since he's under 13, they are required to take him to Cook Children's in Fort Worth. 20 miles away, but fine, he's not hurt and this is just precautionary anyway. So they arrive and the doctors do their thing. X-Rays, etc. They kept insisting on a CT scan, which my wife refused on multiple occasions, but finally allowed the hospital to do it so they could leave. Official diagnosis? He's fine, not even a concussion. Shocker.

So we get the stuff reported to the car insurance company, go buy her a new 2011 Hyundai Tuscon, and move on. Then of course comes the bills.

Ambulance - $525
Radiology - $256
One of the doctors - $455

Then came the insanity...



$6,234.97? Are they out of their ****ing minds? For a scratch and a small bump on the head?

The itemizing is nuts!

$810.22 for IV fluids? Are you insane? He wasn't dehydrated! Give him a $1 bottle of water for crying out loud! I could go on and on, but this gets even "better".

So we turn this all over to Geico and their reaction was the same as ours when it came to the hospital bill. "No one could agree with you more than Geico" <--- direct quote when I told the claims agent that Cook Children's were out of their mind. So she starts in on the paperwork and we end up getting this "revised" bill from Cook Children's.



Now this has to be some sort of sick twisted joke, right? $13,544.97? No way, there has to be a glitch or confusion or something, right?

Nope. According to Cook Children's, the additional $7,310 is because they had to notify a "Level 2 Trauma Team" when the ambulance called it in. WHAT? For nothing more than basically a "routine" checkup? They are completely out of their minds!

So we turn that updated info over to Geico, the agent freaks at the absurdity and audacity of Cook Children's to even put such a bill in the mail, and they send the claim to a higher level rep. The rep requests all of Cook Children's notes and whatnot, and as amazed as I am about this, Geico reviewed it all and paid every cent. I thought for sure Geico would take them to court and fight that bill, or at the very least negotiate a smaller bill, but that doesn't seem to be the case as we signed the authorization for Geico to pay out $14,780.97 just a few days ago.

In a nutshell:

Cook Childrens - $13,544.97
Ambulance - $525
Radiology - $256
One of the doctors - $455

Total - $14,780.97

For a kid that wasn't hurt. In comparison, I paid $16,374.17 (a paltry $1,593.20 more) for an ambulance ride, an emergency appendectomy, and 3 days in the hospital. Seriously Cook Children's, how the F*** do you sleep at night? I wouldn't get too comfortable though, you'll bill that kind of crap to the wrong person someday, and that person won't be nearly as "nice" as I have been...

HEY OBAMA! WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO REALIZE THE REAL CROOKS AND THE REAL PROBLEM WITH GETTING REASONABLE AND AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE ISN'T THE FAULT OF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES, IT IS THE FAULT OF CROOKED HOSPITALS AND DOCTORS LIKE COOK CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL IN FORT WORTH, TEXAS?

[bleach168]

Hospitals are required by law to treat poor patients who can't afford to pay. To recoup those losses, they need to charge paying patients extra. A lot extra. Otherwise, the hospital would stop running.

These extra costs fall disproportionately on the middle class.

And there you have reason #473 why our health care system is broken.

[Art Vandelay]

Glad to hear your wife and kid are okay!

[wrveres]

happy to hear everybody was okay, and i'm glad to hear your insurance picked up the tab.

[markj11]

If the accident would have happened to someone who looked like they may not have insurance then the outcome would have been different. Glad everyone's ok.

[Madison]

Hospitals are required by law to treat poor patients who can't afford to pay. To recoup those losses, they need to charge paying patients extra. A lot extra. Otherwise, the hospital would stop running.

These extra costs fall disproportionately on the middle class.

And there you have reason #473 why our health care system is broken.

Just for fun, here's an exercise. They estimate 30-50 million people are uninsured. Let's split it down the middle and say it's 40 million. The latest census data says there are 308 million people in the U.S. So 13% of people are uninsured.

The uninsured are the least likely to go to the hospital for any reason, mostly due to them being young, healthy people in their 20's, so I'd venture a guess that only around 5% of what hospitals bill are billed to uninsured. But we'll skip that for now.

Does that bill look 13% too high? $13,500 for a scrape that produced not one drop of blood and a small bump on the head? At 13%, they overbilled by only $1,755? So a bill of $11,750 would have been "fair"?

I think not.

[Madison]

And thanks for the warm wishes guys.

[bleach168]

Hospitals are required by law to treat poor patients who can't afford to pay. To recoup those losses, they need to charge paying patients extra. A lot extra. Otherwise, the hospital would stop running.

These extra costs fall disproportionately on the middle class.

And there you have reason #473 why our health care system is broken.

Just for fun, here's an exercise. They estimate 30-50 million people are uninsured. Let's split it down the middle and say it's 40 million. The latest census data says there are 308 million people in the U.S. So 13% of people are uninsured.

The uninsured are the least likely to go to the hospital for any reason, mostly due to them being young, healthy people in their 20's, so I'd venture a guess that only around 5% of what hospitals bill are billed to uninsured. But we'll skip that for now.

Does that bill look 13% too high? $13,500 for a scrape that produced not one drop of blood and a small bump on the head? At 13%, they overbilled by only $1,755? So a bill of $11,750 would have been "fair"?

I think not.

I took a look at their website and they claim to have lost $55 million last year in unpaid medical services and they spent another $80 in community benefits projects whatever that means. So it's up to people like you to foot that bill.

I think they expect you to negotiate the bill down so they sent you a bill that's double or triple what they expect you to ultimately pay. They probably have a whole wing of administrators whose job it is to fight over hospital bills and their substantial salaries are going to be added to your bill too.

[OneLoveBoomer]

Yikes. But everyone's okay.

[GiantsFan14]

my roommate fell off a ladder and shattered his heel a couple months ago. he doesn't have insurance and didn't think it was broken at first, but after a couple days of pestering by his mom he eventually went to a hospital to get it checked out. one doctor looked at him, he got a couple x-rays, had a cast put on and was in and out in a couple of hours. he got a bill a couple weeks ago for over $18,000. absolutely insane. our health care system is completely effed and i doubt that universal health care is going to do anything but make it worse.