Went in after I got rear ended to get checked out. They saw me right away (they were empty) and did an xray. Doc came in and said “well nothing is broken so you can go”. Very dismissive as a side note. Prescribed ibuprofen and sent me walking. The whole ordeal was maybe 45 min with alot of alone time.
BILL $24,100.
Of course this was all run through my State Farm insurance of which I was told I had 10k in PIP. They paid the er the full 10k and now I’m on the hook for the rest of my mri’s and Chiro treatment that was supposed to be covered.
Is this normal????? 24k for a 45 min stupid visit?? What do I do.
Don’t let the attorney talk you into any more medical treatment, as it won’t be covered. And ask the ER if they have a charity program or a reduction for uninsured patients.
I do not work in an ER (so don't come for me), but I have family and friends that do. To be honest, most people do not need to go to the ER after a car accident. Of course, if it's high-speed, high-impact; airbags go off; you have severe pain (head, abdomen, extremity, etc), go to the ER! But if you get into a fender bender, then it's silly. They see so many unnecessary ER visits for stuff like this. (plus, many times the patient is acting like a fool cuz they're gonna try to sue the other party...).
Makes sense. I was hit hard from behind and was told by many to get checked incase. I’m in a spiral of Murphy’s law. If I didn’t they would say I should have. And if I do I get charged and screwed. Oh well. Thanks all. I will ask for itemized bill for
Hospital because I’m just PISSED OFF they would make 24 k from my walk I. And I walk away owing. F
just a note in case no one else has said it, urgent care is a great resource for stuff like this. Urgent but not emergent. Regardless, your situation blows hard and i am SO sorry.
I was rear ended pretty hard in 2019, had neck pain, and asked my regular doc's office to squeeze me in for a same day appointment. She did an exam and ordered an x-ray. If she hadn't been able to see me, I would've gone to urgent care.
You can apply for medicaid, but depending on your income, that may not be an option. You can apply for financial assistance with the hospital. You can see if they have a self pay discount or prompt pay discount.
ER is for emergencies. Immediate danger to life and such. Your whatever pains from a fender bender can wait until your regular doc can see you or urgent care. I think we’ve all been there at some point. It’s a shitty and expensive lesson to learn.
You keep saying “X-ray” and others saying the code is a CT scan. What did you have an X-ray of? Or where you lying in a “tube” as in a CT scanner? What was the imaging for?
I was NOT at fault. His coverage was as only 10k. So my lawyer says I’m shit out of luck basically. None of this makes sense. I was sitting at a stop and he barrels into me.
Ya. I wouldn’t though. He had his car totaled as well and I wouldn’t have the heart to I just can’t believe I had 10 k to treat my blown discs and the er charged that amount. Can I report them for fraud
Without health insurance, these are normal costs associated with emergency room visits. Without knowing the full breakdown of what was done it's hard to determine what the individual costs were, but you did mention an MRI in the comments - that alone can run $12K without insurance. Add in the visit, any lab work, other imaging, any medication administered, 24K sounds expected.
In what fucked up world does 24K for an ER visit with an mri and X-ray with no other treatment sound reasonable. Our healthcare is absolutely insane…. And I’m in the cardiac field.
Nobody is saying it’s ‘reasonable,’ but it’s the way shit is. The American healthcare system (I’m assuming, here) is deeply fucked up, but until we force a change, this is the type of bullshit we have to deal with.
I don’t have any advice for you but I did want to give you an internet hug because 4 years ago someone hit me and my 3 day old 2015 Buick Verano was totaled. I know how you feel and I hope the best for you. Btw. I’d definitely get that uninsured driver It really is worth the few extra bucks.
An explanation of benefits (EOB) shows you the total charges for your visit. It can be line itemized to help you understand how much your health plan covers, and what you'll pay when you get a bill from your provider.
I have an attorney. They say I’m out of my pip and they are “suing” his insurance for the (hopefully) 10k. Of which they get 33.3%. Months high leaves me in a huge hole. Plus I owned the car for a total of 48 hrs. I bought it for 7k and State Farm had it totaled at 5800. This whole thing is crazy.
It’s not fraud. It’s life. That’s what people who choose not to carry insurance get charged. You can try to ask if they have any charity care or can work out a discount for a payment plan.
And they didn’t charge ‘your insurance’. You don’t have health insurance. You have a PIP policy that pays expenses. Heath insurance plans have negotiated rates for medical care. Car insurance policies don’t.
Read your bill. You’ll see exactly what you were charged. I 100% guarantee there are numerous services on there - including the doctors time, the radiologists time, the fee for emergency services, and more. Like everyone here has told you: it’s not ‘fraud’.
And now you’ve hired a lawyer to go after his insurance which would have paid anyway because it’s completely clear he’s at fault. You’re making lots of poor decisions here.
Yes. I’m in Florida. So the 24k is what they charged. But the accepted the 10l as payment. Now I owe all
The other docs.
I just do t get how this is legal.
If the $10k PIP payment went to the hospital, your attorney should be negotiating settlements with the providers from the $10k TPL settlement from the at fault party. You will also need to settle with the hospital to make sure that they consider that PIP payment as payment in full if you have a balance. The hospital might accept as paid in full or might ask for their pro rata share of the $10k TPL settlement as well.
Yes. And we are fighting for his measly 10k in coverage. Meanwhile MY INS covered the 10k in pip. I was assuming the 10k would cover more than a freaking basic walk in clinic er
Honestly $24k seems high. Yes, ER bills are regularly quite high, even for short visits. Even if they weren't busy, even if you were only there 45 mins, etc. BUT, $24k still seems high - not impossible, but high.
What tests did they run while you were there? presumably X-Rays but did they do anything else?
Did you get an itemized bill from the hospital? I'd want to check that to make sure they didn't like...duplicate an MRI charge or something.
Billed amount is largely irrelevant. Itemizing doesn’t magically make costs go away. Real issue is if OP doesn’t have insurance as they can balance bill.
Billed amount is relevant if OP is being charged for services that literally were not rendered.
If everything is right and that's really just what the hospital charges then OP will need to figure something out.
I guess I'm just surprised that they billed $24k to be seen and for an x-ray. I can easily understand several thousand, up to $10k even, but $24k seems truly excessive, even knowing how excessive billing really is.
You refuse to acknowledge that you had a more expensive imaging, a CT as has been pointed out, why. Also you are escalating your outrage by saying things like, "they saw me for 1 minute," which is literally impossible, and dumb to claim.
Ok, I thought maybe this was the reason. There is one of these by my daughter's university and every year the parent's FB page warns about the predatory billing practices.
So when PIP coverage is fully explored, your health insurance is next. I'd ask them to file a health insurance claim as a secondary payer. They should be indicating the date of the accident on the form and then medical will bitch and whine...they'll ask you some questions and then when they decide to pay, they'll negotiate your rates. I suspect the remaining amount will decrease if medical is approved.
Your insurance can also go through a process of subrogation where they go after the other insurances at play to get their money back.
The car insurance of the person hit you should pay it. They did for me. I went to my doctor, not ER, and spent lot less, and the insurance gave me $500. I didn’t fake and asked form more money.
Had the same thing happen to me. Got rear ended and went to a walk in. I gave them the other persons insurance & had a CT scan. Bill came out to 30k. I called them about it and they stated it should go to the insurance. I told them the other persons insurance was denying fault/refusing to pay due to driver not being listed & it would probably get no where. and all of a sudden, they dropped the bill to about $500.
I’m still paying off the 12k for my kidney stone that I passed within an hour of being in the ER. I had insurance through AT&T they paid about 4K total…. Thank God I’m 65 and now have Medicare. Our healthcare system is very unhealthy.
$24k is higher than the out of pocket maximum on every single ACA compliant plan. You shouldn't be on the hook for the remaining $14k if $10k has already been paid.
You and your lawyer are misunderstanding. You don't owe 24K or 14k. 18K was the approved amount, 8K was contractually adjusted, and the remaining 9400 was paid.
That was not a ct scan. It was xray and visit. And yes. They agreed to accept 9k instead of the billed 24. Which leaves me with shit. Since the pip was 10k. I’m saying I have zero left to actually TREAT MY
injury.
So you're saying they're lying? And billed for a CT scan they didn't perform? If so, you should challenge that. X rays are much cheaper than CTs, so that would make a difference.
In my experience, when another driver is at fault, they can go after more than policy limits. I'm not sure why your lawyer thinks that's not the case. Or what your lawyer is doing exactly? You could have gotten the PIP. And if your lawyer is saying that's all there is, does that mean he's working for free?
I ruptured a disc in my lower back. Suggested cortisone shot. I am in a lot of pain and have extreme weakness. Now that I have zero dollars I will just suffer. Nothing else I can do.
I just updated my comment, I accidentally submitted before I finished. Read what I said about your attorney. Something doesn't make sense. Lawyers usually get 30ish percent in these cases. So where is his money coming from?
I didn't realize you had gone and had other imaging that showed a ruptured disc.
Your lawyer sucks. This ain’t what this bill means at all.
Does the at fault driver have a home? Property and homeowners insurance can cover personal injuries if the at fault driver doesn’t have enough coverage
You don't owe anything. You misunderstood the statement. And you had a CT scan, not an X ray. The bill has been paid in full. You got the equivalent of a breakdown of the charges and a receipt. You didn't get a bill.
dude u dont kno the difference between a ct & xray 😭 u had a ct. u posted the cpt code. had one recently but have tricare prime so i dont pay anything, but insurance paid 13k for it, so the bill sounds just about right. they were like 7k back in 2017 😞 don't even want to know what they'll be 10 years from now with this healthcare system 😭
I recently had like 14 ER visits over a two-month period, which happened to fall during a brief period where I didn’t have health insurance for the first time in my life. (Also the first time I’ve ever needed to go to the ER.)
I was able to talk down to around 40% of the originally billed amount across all of them, saving myself a little over $15K.
Most people seem not to know this, but like most things, hospital bills are (usually) negotiable, ESPECIALLY emergency room bills. I don’t know how doable this would be since you DO have insurance, but maybe call the billing department of the hospital and have a discussion, see if you can get anywhere.
The healthcare business in the US is shadier than used car sales. The doctors and nurses, the EMTs, all those on the front lines are heroes, but the business side of things is disgusting… Hospitals charge many multiples over what they need to for treatment to turn a healthy profit. Their margins are insane. You can end up with an ER bill from one hospital for $1,500.00 and then $10,000.00 from another hospital for the same exact treatment… There’s a reason for that.
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u/mickmomolly Apr 16 '25
Don’t let the attorney talk you into any more medical treatment, as it won’t be covered. And ask the ER if they have a charity program or a reduction for uninsured patients.