Hospital charges $9,000 to bandage cut middle finger, report says

[Teh One Who Knocks]

FOX News


A New Jersey teacher said he was charged nearly $9,000 after he showed a cut middle finger to a hospital emergency room aide.

Baer Hanusz-Rajkowski said he went to the Bayonne Medical Center last August after he cut his finger with a hammer and thought he needed stitches. He didn’t. Instead he was sent home after he got a tetanus shot from a nurse practitioner who also sterilized the cut, applied some antibacterial ointment to it, and put a bandage on it.

Then he got the bill: $8,200 for the emergency room visit, $180 for the shot, $242 for the bandage and $8 for the ointment, plus hundreds of dollars for the nurse practitioner.

"I got a Band-Aid and a tetanus shot. How could it be $9,000? This is crazy," Hanusz-Rajkowski told NBC 4 New York Wednesday.

The hospital’s CEO Mark Spektor told the station Hanusz-Rajkowski’s visit cost so much because his insurance carrier United Healthcare refuses to offer fair reimbursement rates.

But United Healthcare responded by saying the hospital was just trying to gouge its members.

Linda Schwimmer of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute said the right price for getting a finger bandaged should be $400 to $1,000.

She told NBC that New Jersey needs a public database showing the average price for medical procedures.

[Goofy]

Linda Schwimmer of the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute said the right price for getting a finger bandaged should be $400 to $1,000.


Even those prices are absurd....... thank fuck for the NHS

[Noilly Pratt]

Last Halloween I nearly sliced my finger off! 10 stitches and a tetanus shot and about 3 hours of my time. It cost me $0.

As it was a slow night in the Emergency we got to chatting and I asked if I were to pay for it, what this would end up costing me. The Doc said "About $500 in the U.S., but this is Canada."

[Loser]

Superglue would have cost ya 3$ chief... Fuck the hospitals and their charging 45$ for an aspirin.

[Hal-9000]

Superglue would have cost ya 3$ chief... Fuck the hospitals and their charging 45$ for an aspirin.

I wonder what would happen if a person swallowed some Superglue?

or better yet, if you cooked it into someone else's food? :shifty:

[lost in melb.]

Why does common sense not prevail in the US with this kinda stuff?

[RBP]

This story makes no sense, unless the hospital balance bills after applying insurance to an ER visit. That would be outrageous, and the story doesn't provide that detail.

The cash price the hospital charges is meaningless for the insured. The real price is determined by Reasonable and Customary (R&C) schedules then reduced by negotiated rates. Normally a copay applies to ER which can be high. Mine is $200.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

This is why health insurance is so Fucked, everyone is a crook

[Teh One Who Knocks]

This is why health insurance is so Fucked, everyone is a crook

And it's shit like this that gives the idiots in congress the ammo they need to try and force 'single payer' down our throats. And we all know how great that will turn out. Look how smoothly the Obamacare roll out has gone and take note of the well oiled machine know as the VA System works. It will be a million times worse if they get what they want and the Feds start completely running the healthcare system in this country.

[PorkChopSandwiches]

You could really get away with everyone on a very minimal insurance plan for catastrophes, if they didn't rape you on basic care and you paid out of pocket. I see no reason they couldn't have just issued him a bill for $100 for the services provided. Even bump it to $200 and everyone wins

[Hal-9000]

I see a lot of abuse in our free system....people with tanned faces coming for a tickle in their throat, slightly scraped knee, bumped their toe...


not trying to be a bigot but it's the immigrants in our country that screw things up for people needing actual care/imaging/specialists...

I've sat in too many waiting rooms overhearing 'problems' and in my world, 95% of these people don't have problems...

[Acid Trip]

Insurance is a great racket to be in. Collect gobs of money, ensure only a certain percent pays actual claims, spend the rest on whatever the executives feel like.

[Hal-9000]

AT :cheers:

[Acid Trip]

AT :cheers:

:D