True story.
I was recently in the ER of my local hospital for acute kidney stone pain. There I was with an IV just starting to drip in the meds and here come a cute person with a cart whom I assume is going to further attend to me in my pain and discomfort.
Nope.
The machine she has wheeled in is a credit card machine. She wants me to pay my co-pay - like now. Oh, she was polite enough, but here I am lying in a hospital bed and they made darn sure they were going to get their co-pay.
Needless to say, that was an eye-opener. Geez, the next time could you wait an hour until I’m discharged at which time I’ll be happy to pay up?
Where I live, all you have to do is have brown skin and speak Spanish. Then they treat you like a VIP.
I had no credit card on me the last time I was in the ER-———no one mentioned payment,though.
.
I was in the ER for kidney stones a year or two ago.
Half doped up and miserable in a bay, here comes someone with a CC reader.
No matter what time of the night you go to the ER or how long you have to wait, you can be sure the lady from the business office will find you promptly.
“...The machine she has wheeled in is a credit card machine. She wants me to pay my co-pay - like now.....”
I totally believe ya. 2 years ago, I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia.
They no more got the medicine drip going and here comes a lady from the billing department wanting my co-pay. I was too sick to care at the moment and fortunately, my wife happen to walk in and took care of whatever she was wanting.
But yeah, all they care about these days is the $$$$.
Maybe you should have asked the cute person if she was having you pay now because she had seen the doctor's prognosis.
And if the employee with the CC reader had said, “Oh my, you’re in a lot of pain right now; we can take care of this once they get you stabilized”, she would have been fired.
I was in ER dying last Jan.
In the middle of trying to keep my rosey bag of bones alive I was asked “how will we be paying today?”
I handed them a debit card
A very similar incident like that happened to me after my first heart attack. Not kidding. At least they had the decency to wait until I was “stable” though .... (/heavy sarcasm)
The signature is not valid.
I am insured via a retiree insurance plan. Six months ago I went to an outpatient surgery center for an upper endoscopy because my throat would occasionally spasm closed.
I had to pay for the entire procedure as soon as I walked in the door. I’m not going back to that GI doc or facility.