The bill for treating a gunshot wound: $21,000 for the first 35 minutes

The Chicago Tribune ^ | 7-21-17 | Jennifer Smith Richards, Annie Sweeney and Jason Meisner

[afraidfortherepublic]

The charges started racking up the moment Annette Johnson arrived at Mount Sinai Hospital with a gunshot wound to her left forearm.

Doctors sliced open Johnson's arm and installed a $500 metal plate to shore up her shattered ulna, securing it with numerous bone screws that cost $246 apiece. There were morphine drips to quell pain, tetanus shots to prevent infection, blood screens and anesthesia.

Two years earlier in a different part of the city, Leo Leyva arrived at a North Side hospital with a gunshot wound to his back. His last memory before going under anesthesia was a nurse telling him they were going to take good care of him and to count up to 10.

As the 18-year-old drifted off, the emergency room team at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center went to work to save his life, starting IV lines and X-raying his chest and abdomen before performing an emergency surgery to remove the bullet and repair the damage.

For both Johnson and Leyva, just two of the thousands of gunshot victims in Chicago every year, the first hours and days of their hospital treatment were only the start of what would be costly recoveries that continue to this day.

Still, the bills for their initial treatment were staggering. In his first 35 minutes at the hospital, Leyva had racked up $21,521 in charges, and by the time he was released three weeks later the bill totaled more than $157,000. For Johnson, who spent barely 24 hours at Mount Sinai, the hospital charges approached $27,000.

[PA Engineer]

They are titanium for starters plus they have to be sterile packed and exactly to spec

Yes and that is the direct cost. The secondary cost is the "medical device" overhead required for FDA approval.

[Nifster]

That And having them in the medical supply pipeline.....one in stock, one on the way, one coming of production line

[chris37]

You’re incorrect on that.

I do not have insurance. I pay out of pocket for my healthcare expenses.

I tell them I am self pay, I am charged the full amount, same as all others, and negotiating down is done after the bill calculated.

All doctors will negotiate, all technicians, everyone.

The hospital itself will also discount the bill.

Sacred Heart of Pensacola doesn’t negotiate, but rather discounts the total bill by 70% by those who have no insurance as a matter of policy.

That amount can then be paid over a 6 month period.

It was nice to see a 68,000 dollar bill dropped to 18k. However, 17k is also still expensive, but they saved my life, so I paid them in full.

The entity that offers the smallest reduction is the ambulance, but they did reduce that bill by 200$.

If a person has no insurance or means to pay, the bill can be paid in a number of ways through various programs and county services. In this manner tax payers are definitely paying those bills. The bill can also simply be forgiven via requesting charity if a person cannot pay.

[Mom MD]

Then they have to have enough money to pay the lawyers who will sue for every screw placed that fails or has a complication. Lawyers arent cheap

[Mom MD]

And it pays about 7 cents on the dollar

[PA Engineer]

It is north of 1.2 Billion to bring a drug to market now. This is the FDA overhead.

My Wife (neurologist) and I are working on a project related to a very rare childhood disease (1 to 3 per million worldwide). The disease (genetic) begins in early childhood and results in rapid neurodegeneration and death in five to eight years.

We are investigating an established supplement (treatment) to be developed into a nasal inhalation form (will not work internally). Forget it. It would cost $60,744 per individual worldwide just to get the FDA approval.

Even with orphan drug status, the FDA costs are prohibitive.

[Nifster]

I know. It’s horrible

[dragnet2]

Read the article. That's why we provide links.

Hey newbie, read my post directly below # 51 at #52, before attempting to share your superior attitude with me.

I clearly acknowledged and quoted the correct amount. Pay attention.

[Sequoyah101]

I have been considering the same thing and not to stir trouble, the users and the agencies of Christian cost sharing can chime in with all the corrections they want, but some expect you to negotiate a rate they will share cost on and some have already negotiated costs.

My experience with negotiating is that it is better done before the fact than after. Some people will fall back on the fact that the service has already been provided and it is up to the provider to get their money since they made the mistake of “trusting” you to pay. It does not work that way. If you have money or assets they have a legal claim against you. Not having a certain pathway to pay the bill is not an acceptable process to me.

[21twelve]

I wonder how negotiations work showing up at 3 am to the ER with a gunshot would works? (Or a compound fracture).

“Jeez doc - $25 grand to stop the bleeding? How about $2,000?”

I also read that because they aren’t insurance, you can’t use the state insurance board to look into claim adjustments, etc.

[Sequoyah101]

Correct. Doesn’t sound like a very great deal does it?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Thanks for your story.
No other industry in the US has been worked over like medicine.

I think the Progressives saw Obamacare as a midway step toward total takeover, Canada or UK style.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Back in my high school days—the mid 60s, our family doctor had a large sign painted and hung in his waiting room, blasting government meddling in health care.

I recall it said something like “I am not a government doctor. I don’t work for the government. I work for my patients.”

[newgeezer]

My point wasn’t about you. It was about the traditional culture in the health care industry. Surely someone coming forth ahead of time and inquiring about prices is seen as an oddity.