Bizarre, Congress

Oklahoma Woman Charged $15,000 For Four Tiny Screws By Hospital

Young, a retired librarian on disability and mother of two from Oklahoma was sent the crippling bill by OU Medical Center at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City.  Two weeks after surgery, Young received a letter from BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma, stating that it had not approved her hospital stay and that staying overnight was not “medically necessary,” and thus not covered.

She fought to get an itemized copy of her bill but when it was sent reluctantly, she found the screw charges.  The OU Medical Center would not give her the part numbers for the screws in an obvious effort to prevent her checking the real prices. However, reporters found that these type of screws are normally below $300 and the most expensive is $1,000.

After considerable effort, the company agreed to cover the costs but the problem still remains the system itself where hospitals inflate reported costs.  This happened to my family when my son Benjamin had a concussion from playing college sports.  He was asked to fill out a form once every couple days on his condition and drop it off at the doctor’s office. He never saw a doctor, but we received a bill for thousands, including repeated charges $350 for visits with doctors who never met him.  He was never hospitalized or taken to the emergency room.  He was never given any medication.  Yet we were charged many thousands of dollars. It took my wife literally dozens of calls before she was told that the school insurance would cover the costs.  Again, the overcharging by the doctor who never met Ben was never addressed.

 

After all of the “reforms,” little has changed in this inherently dishonest system of overcharging and holdouts for consumers.  Some, particularly elderly patients, simply pay while the rest of us have to spent hours getting the companies to honor their policies.  I have spoken with many doctors who are appalled by the system.  Yet, Congress continues to receive millions from health care companies and has repeatedly failed to address this corrupt and abusive system.

111 thoughts on “Oklahoma Woman Charged $15,000 For Four Tiny Screws By Hospital”

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  4. My youngest son practices medicine as a Chief Hospitalist now. He has remarked about the “armies of financial clerks and lawyers” in the health care system.

    1. David Benson – owes me a citation from the OED. How is your son doing with paying off his student loans or did he go to school where you were and get the faculty discount? BTW, congrats on his job.

      1. Washington State University did not have a medical school at the time. However, the USG has a rural hospital program whereby if a young MD does their residency and maybe more at rural hospitals their medical school loan is forgiven.

        Paul C.Schulte owes me a two word translation from the Greek. What purile sillyness.

        1. David Benson – owes me a citation from the OED. You will get nothing until I get my citation. BTW, it is spelled silliness. Besides, as I explained a couple of times, two of the words do not go together in Greek and the other the first word is misspelled. I suspect you know what your intended translations are, so I am not sure why you need me to supply you with a translation.

            1. David Benson – owes me a citation from the OED. You have been told the criteria. It is your move.

              BTW, I am the oldest of six. I can do this stuff forever. 😛

    1. Trump’s tie is supposed to dangle down between his legs because he has severe phallic insecurity, he never buttons his jacket, and he weights 150 pounds more than the picture. The hair and the pumpkin makeup is well done, though, as is the racism.

      1. Yes, noting that the prior president failed is “racism” because – we can not note the failure of blacks.

        Get over it. Obama was a failure. He would have been a failure – if he was white, male or female.

        He would have been a failure if he was a republican and had such an abysmal economy – GWB was also a Failure.

  10. Hmmm. $15,076 for four tiny screws inserted into the two middle toes of her left foot? That works out to $3,769.00 per screw. Bernie Sanders says that if each of just chips in $0.00000000001 (assuming a US population of 325.7 million or so), we’ll be able to easily pay for that screw without cost to the patient whatsoever. Virtually totally free!!!! I want my FREE STUFF! Bernie, 2020!!!

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