New US Healthcare Low: Woman Pays $700 To Sit In ER Waiting Room For 7 Hour With No Treatment

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November 3, 2021, 12:04 pm

Many thousands of jaws have dropped since Monday when a reporter and popular Twitter user posted a screenshot of a headline trumpeting the latest depths to which the U.S. healthcare system has sunk. According to local reports, a woman in Georgia was billed close to $700 for the privilege of sitting in an ER waiting room for seven hours before giving up and leaving without being treated for her head injury.

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“I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name,” said Taylor Davis. “I wasn’t seen at all.”

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When the bill came in the mail a couple weeks later, Davis thought surely it was some kind of mistake. She called the Emory Decatur Hospital to ask about it and was told that it was standard to charge “patients” hundreds of dollars just for giving the front desk their information, regardless of whether anything at all was done for them, calling it an “emergency room visit fee.”

“So I called them and she said it’s hospital protocol even if you’re just walking in and you’re not seen,” said Davis. “When you type in your social, that’s it. You’re going to get charged regardless.”

Most of the time, this nearly $700 fee is buried under the rest of the massive charges the average American gets billed any time they have a significant medical problem, especially one that requires urgent treatment like a head injury. Untreated head injuries can be very dangerous, with untreated concussions often leading to mental issues down the road and leaving people vulnerable to more concussions, compounding the issues.

Unfortunately, David now says that she’s less likely to go to the ER for future head injuries or other issues because now she knows she’ll be charged $700 whether she’s treated or not.

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“I’m very reluctant to go to the hospital now. That’s kind of like the last resort now. Seeing that they’re able to bill you for random things, it doesn’t make me want to go. So that’s not good.”

It’s really not.

Spreading outrage over this story, helped along by Ken Klippenstein’s post, has resulted in a response from the hospital saying they will look into this policy that they’ve apparently held for years before anyone complained about it enough to make it into the news. Meanwhile, other Twitter users are offering their stories of receiving similar bills for absolutely nothing other than a day sitting in an uncomfortable chair trying not to breathe too much.

i went in and said i think my appendix blew up(thank you Simpsons), they said nah you got kidney stones, I went to a different hospital and they were like yeah you’re gonna die you need to be in surgery now. the hospital that told me i had kidney stones tried to charge me $7500

— My Name is Johnny Varvagos (@BottomStructure) November 2, 2021

I was charged $14K and received ZERO pain killers when I had an ovarian cyst the size of a quarter rupture. They were like “yeah that’s a lot of internal bleeding, it’ll stop in a couple days, just go home”

— Mther (Hooker Pool Girl) (@punishedmother) November 3, 2021

Oh, lucky! The company I work for has an $8,000 deductible and it’s over $300 a month for this plan. Then people try to scare me when I push for socialized healthcare because ‘my taxes will go up’. Okay, but if my taxes go up by less than I’m already paying, I’m good with that.

— Robin Dickman (@Robin_Dickman) November 2, 2021

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I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve sat or slept in my car outside of an ER with an oximeter ring on checking my own vitals to avoid this because when you’re chronically ill they just send you home anyway & I don’t wanna get billed.

— April Dalaman⁷ (@AprilDalaman) November 2, 2021

Cost me $400 (After insurance) to remove a spec of debris that wouldn’t come out of my eye for 10+ hours. 2 hours of waiting, less than a minute worth of medical care, nothing more expensive than a q-tip.

— Bilge Rat (@Irid0n) November 2, 2021

And tfw there’s an ER 2 miles from your house but it’s not in your network… so you drive 20 miles to the ER that IS in your network, and later they tell you the Dr. that saw you wasn’t in the network (as if that’s your fault) so it isn’t covered.

— Jen (@JenOutpost) November 2, 2021

I was told I have anxiety.. then they billed me $6400.. Didn’t help much with the anxiety

— anxious i (@stoop2_ur_lvl) November 2, 2021

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Got billed a few hundred for going to the ER for a concussion that urgent care told me to go to ER for, then the ER just sent me home

— Right Wing Cope (@RightWingCope) November 2, 2021

Same thing happened to me. Received a $150 bill from sitting in the ER waiting room one hour and leaving when I realized I wouldn’t be seen any time soon. It was sent to collections and I disputed it — I won.

— Bort Simpson (@MastertineMast) November 2, 2021

I stopped breathing awhile back, just couldn’t breathe short shallow breaths was all I had.
Went to the ER, got put in a room alone for 5 hours, and was eventually told “hey goodbye if you have trouble breathing seek medical help” like that’s. That’s why I’m here.
$2,000 bill.

— Uncle Drew’s no. 1 Fan Page (@UncleDrewStan) November 2, 2021

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*First Published: November 3, 2021, 12:04 pm