Help! Can someone explain what I should do.

[u/Versatilitee]

I recently payed a visit to the emergency room as my face had swollen up from a tooth abscess and I was scared of going septic. I was brought into a room, sat in a chair, had my vitals checked, prescribed an antibiotic and released. I am uninsured and received my bill. Which I’ve attached. I asked for an itemized receipt and this is what I’m getting.

Can someone please tell me why it’s $2000 for a vital check and a prescription? Is there anything I can do to get this lowered since I’m self pay? I’m really just trying to gauge my options here as I don’t want this sent to collections and will pay what I have to but this seems outrageous for what was done.

Thanks in advance

[u/enigmicazn]

Call the hospital to set up a payment plan or to see if they can lower it a bit more.

You went to the the ER, it is expensive. A bag of fluids that cost them probably $2 will be billed to you for a few hundred minimal. It's the cost of running an ER and having multiple allied health professionals and physicians there to care for sick patients.

The fact you came in for dental pain and was out immediately says to me it wasn't objectively an emergency.

[u/Both-Competition-383 → u/enigmicazn]

Have you ever had an abscessed tooth? Do you know how bad they hurt? Do you understand how close your teeth are to your brain and how fast things can spread? How about what a “care desert” some places are, or the fact finances can push people to “wait it out” until they have no other choice but an emergency room. We also don’t know OP’s medical history that could have complicated the decision further. Point being, with the consideration of the fact there are a decent bit of unknowns, it is completely a SUBJECTIVE OPINION that this was not an emergency. An antibiotic and vitals check may have cost OP almost $2000, but it costs you absolutely nothing to be sympathetic. 🤷‍♀️

[u/enigmicazn → u/Both-Competition-383]

Yes, I have and I also work prehospital as a FireFighter/Paramedic and in the ED as an RN, I see this literally every shift. I sympathize with patients as it's probably their worst day ever but objectively speaking, it doesn't sound like an emergency based off what OP wrote and what the staff at the time thought. They ultimately need to see a dentist as most ERs do not have dentist on location nor do we have the capabilities outside antibiotics and pain medication to treat dental emergencies.

[u/km0099 → u/enigmicazn]

As a dentist, I agree with all of this.

[u/FanSerious7672 → u/enigmicazn]

Unfortunately the general public doesn't have a medical degree. All they know is the pain

[u/Both-Competition-383 → u/enigmicazn]

Congrats on completely missing the point. 🙄

[u/leetfists → u/Both-Competition-383]

If they left with nothing but a prescription, it wasn't an actual emergency. I went to the ER with an accessed tooth myself when I was younger. They kept me on heavy painkillers and IV antibiotics overnight then sent me to a specialized dentist by ambulance because it was an actual medial emergency. It was very expensive.

[u/Both-Competition-383 → u/leetfists]

Missed. The. Point. 🙄 Which is that much worse because you say you had an experience similar and were hospitalized; how do you know the line in the situation between “emergency” and “just an antibiotic?” You/your parents trusted an ER DOCTOR (in a situation requiring a dentist as so many have pointed out so helpfully s/) to tell you a proper course of treatment. So why is it wrong that OP did the same thing, but because he didn’t require the same interventions it was wrong for him to go? Faulting people for protecting their own health because you don’t understand their choices is both ridiculously childish and self centered.