You may remember, back in November, when Adana slammed Emma's pinky in a bedroom door. Well, after 2 weeks of Emma being completely unable to bend her still-swollen, still-discolored finger, I took her to the Seattle Hand Surgery Group to see a finger specialist, a doctor who specializes in pediatric fingers. Dr. Joneschild spent a whole 10 minutes with Emma, and declared her finger to be only fractured, and assured us that it would heal soon.
In the meantime, she recommended that Emma wear a plastic "tip protector" to ease the pain and, well, protect her finger tip. So we went to their lab and a girl took a bit of plastic, heated it so that it was pliable, and bent it in half so that it would fit over her finger. It took about 2 minutes.
Fast forward to today . . . the finger is pretty much healed, although still a bit stiff.
I received the insurance statement for the whole transaction today:
Amount paid to the DOCTOR who looked at Emma's finger: $117. (I paid $20 copay, and the rest was covered by insurance.)
Amount I owe for the little plastic tip protector: $163!! (Insurance doesn't cover diddly-squat of this.)
I called the Seattle Hand Surgery Group to ask them if this was a typo, because SURELY this was a typo. There is no way that a piece of plastic costs more than the services of a doctor.
But, sure enough, the lady on the phone informed me that this is the standard price for this "piece of equipment." (Equipment, bah! I could've made the same thing by melting down a candle and sticking her finger in the wax.)
Her advice: "In the future, you should ask first what everything is going to cost."
So, note to self . . . never assume that anyone uses reason when setting prices. Ask first. I don't care if I am gushing blood for multiple orafices - I'm going to be asking how much every stitch and band-aid costs before I allow them to come near me.
I just hope Emma appreciates it when I wrap up her smelly little finger protector for her birthday present next month.
6 comments:
Okay, I am still laughing from your ending comment, but totally with you on the disgust with medical. We have had our share of ridiculous charges as well. When my mother was in the hospital, they would charge 200.00 for a blanket etc. It infuriates me to no end. Have you seen "Sicko" yet?
You know, in Puerto Rico, you have to take your own blankets, food, even OTC meds with you when you are admitted to the hospital. Until this post, I thought that was ridiculous, but now I'm thinking they were saving their patients a FINGERLOAD of money!
Don't even get me started on how insane our medical system is! I think we should scrap the whole insurance thing and start over. It's obviously too broken to work properly.
But you did make me laugh, yet again. I'm so glad we're friends! I can always count on you (and your blog) for a good laugh.
Grrr. That is so messed up! I'll remember this--and I'm having Blain read this. He's usually good about trying to save his patients $, but another heads up is always good.
Brooke -- I'd be the first one to agree with you about how ridiculous it is. I also agree with Jenny about the system being both insane and broken. I know because I'm working inside of this system.
To understand why the little finger splint cost so much, you've got to sort of follow the trail back:
-- you're paying a royalty of sorts for the person that designed and marketed the ingenious little system of pliable plastic splints. (I'm being a little sarcastic here, but SOMEBODY came up with the idea).
-- you're paying for the plastic material itself, which might have been specifically designed for this use.
-- you're paying for the research/testing which needed to be done in order for the FDA to approve the use of the moldable plastic splint system in humans.
-- you're paying for the liability coverage in the event that somebody decides that they were somehow INJURED by this device and sues the manufacturer. Seems ridiculous, but then, people sometimes sue for pretty ridiculous reasons.
-- you're paying for the person who actually put the splint on. That person needed to be trained in putting those splints on (maybe a pretty simple thing, but still needed to be trained). That person also has medical insurance (which, as you know, is hugely expensive) and perhaps a retirement plan.
I'm an advocate of our health care system being COMPLETELY redone, with a single payer. Call it socialized medicine if you want, but I'm convinced that anything short of that will fall short of rectifying everything that is absolutely wrong and/or insane about the way we're trying to do it now.
LOL about wrapping the "equipment" for Emma's birthday gift! I hear you on the insane medical costs...just be grateful some of it was covered. I won't go into our coverage, because we got a new plan this year, and it is crap!!! I am hoping Eric goes governmnet soon, there plan is a little better, unless Congress screws that up too!
Look on the bright side if it were a few years from now you may need a Washington bureaucrat to approve your finger splint. They just might think a tongue depressor will work just fine...but I won't go into that nice little bit of "pork" thrown into the stimulus package!
PS Socialized medicine doesn't work look at Canada and half of Europe! Just wanted to speak my two scents for what they're worth.
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