OMG, the story of my freaking life. As my hand was bleeding and I was in more pain than I've ever experienced, I'm yelling at my husband not to call an ambulance because we didn't have insurance (he switched jobs and we couldn't afford to pay for COBRA, so we didn't have insurance for 3 months).
My husband had his appendix out last year and the first thing I thought of were the bills. Because even with insurance we still racked up about $2,500 in bills. So, yeah, the healthcare system here sucks.
One suggestion for your brother/parents when the bills start coming in--your brother should call the hospital and see if he can be considered a "charity case" or whatever they call it, to see if he can get a big part of the bill written off or possibly written off altogether. They considered me and my husband's salaries, so I didn't qualify, but your brother might. And tell him to NOT bring up anything about his parents. They need to think he has no other option to pay this bill than his own salary. This might not work for the surgeon's bill, anesthesia, etc., but the hospital will likely be the largest bill anyway. And tell him when he gets those bills from everyone other than the hospital, he needs to call and get some of the cost knocked off there, too, not because of his wages but because there is no way in hell they would get paid that amount from an insurance company (they have their own "contracted" rates that the doctors have to accept) and he shouldn't have to pay the full amount if they don't. The billing manager where I work does this all the time for people without insurance--she estimates what an insurance company likely would have paid and charges the patient that amount instead of the full cost that is billed.
no subject
My husband had his appendix out last year and the first thing I thought of were the bills. Because even with insurance we still racked up about $2,500 in bills. So, yeah, the healthcare system here sucks.
One suggestion for your brother/parents when the bills start coming in--your brother should call the hospital and see if he can be considered a "charity case" or whatever they call it, to see if he can get a big part of the bill written off or possibly written off altogether. They considered me and my husband's salaries, so I didn't qualify, but your brother might. And tell him to NOT bring up anything about his parents. They need to think he has no other option to pay this bill than his own salary. This might not work for the surgeon's bill, anesthesia, etc., but the hospital will likely be the largest bill anyway. And tell him when he gets those bills from everyone other than the hospital, he needs to call and get some of the cost knocked off there, too, not because of his wages but because there is no way in hell they would get paid that amount from an insurance company (they have their own "contracted" rates that the doctors have to accept) and he shouldn't have to pay the full amount if they don't. The billing manager where I work does this all the time for people without insurance--she estimates what an insurance company likely would have paid and charges the patient that amount instead of the full cost that is billed.