St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis does not have an ER. It functions as a hospital for children with serious diseases and specifically states in its material that it does not have an ER. All treatment for the children is provided totally free of charge, and even the parent’s travel cost and lodging is covered by the hospital.
Your experience must have been with a different hospital besides the one I referred to in my post. But thanks for your comments...it goes to show that medical charges can be outrageous. And definitely glad you were ok!
The Children’s Research Hospital is just one part of the St. Jude/St.Joseph medical organization. Based on my experience, they are soaking people who have insurance to underwrite the charity cases.
Thanks for the kind thoughts. After this one scare caused my insurance to jump from $4K/yr to $9K/yr (I turned 45) I had to drop it. I’ve been uninsured ever since 2010 and paid cash last time at my Primary Care which is also St. Jude Health where a 15 minute office visit for a chest cold was $120 cash, instead of the $190 they would have charged me when I had insurance. I guess it shows what they consider the cost is of billing insurance companies.