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Bitter pill: The cost of health care in the U.S.
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During a recent visit to the ER for what turned out to be a severely sprained ankle, I was billed close to $4,000. The bill only had 4 lines, diagnostic/therapeutic imaging: $711, pharmacy $227, ER $2,244 and Supplies $698. What I got was around about 20min with a physician, 2 x-rays, a tetanus shot and wound care by a nurse, crutches and a cheap crappy 'brace' I never wore cause it didn't fit. I was in 'care' for about 1 hour, 30min of which were waiting time. And I waited about 2hrs beforehand. The service was perfectly fine, everyone was nice and helpful. But I don't understand the charges. So I called and requested an itemized bill, esp for the Pharmacy and Supplies. Now I saw that I was charged $660 for what was listed as 'Imbl Ankle Air' - and I had no idea what that was. So I called again, and talked to various people none of which could tell me what that was. Since I actually have insurance and my insurance was paying for much of my bill, I figured, THEY would be interested to hear that I didn't - to my knowledge - receive this imbl ankle air thingy that was $660 and thus I submitted an inquiry with Blue Shield. A few months after that, Blue Shield responded that my case would be closed, because everything was just dandy. Again, no explanation as to what this imbl ankle air thing was, nor any interest in the fact, that I told them that I didn't get it - whatever it was - cause everything except for the brace (which is $24 at Riteaid) was accounted for. At that stage I gave up, cause I had already paid, because I didn't want non-payment to effect my credit rating!
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