September of 2009 I experienced a second lower back injury. Having been through the process several years before, I should have know better that go to a hospital, even thought the pain was severe.
The past injury turned out to be just a torn muscle, although extremely painful, it healed on its own after two weeks.
However this particular injury felt different in the fact that I could get no relief, and had already missed two weeks of work. Simple fact was that I could not walk, and unfortunately work requires me to do more than wither in pain on the floor. So after much dread. I decided to go to the emergency room, just in case I had actually injured myself this time.
I drove myself to the Clear Lake Regional , emergency room. I was initially pleased to find that the waiting room only had a dozen or so folks that appeared to be waiting. I checked in with a female staff member in the admissions window, gave her my insurance card, and I.D. and proceeded to sit in the waiting room. Now I had already psyched myself up for a wait. I no that emergency rooms are not a drive through process and expected to be waiting several hours. I am a relatively patient person, and this day was no exception. I was however in an enormous amount of pain, and even sitting in a chair was excruciating. I went into a state of almost hypnosis where all I could do was close my eyes and filter out the pain. It was exhausting, but I held in there, thinking that at least I was in the right place and that there may be some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. Three hours past and I started to notice that other that had arrived after me, were filtering into the magic doors, and into the triage area. I also noticed that they did not appear to have any apparent serious injuries that would justify a skip to the front of the line.
Still my patients endured, until after 4 ½ hours had past, and the pain and fatigue of the pain disallowed me to sit in any longer.
For the first time in 4 ½ hours I limped my way up to the admissions desk again and asked the following in a calm, no accusatory manner.
ME “ Excuse me maam, I have been waiting for 4 ½ hours. I think I may have been overlooked on your list”.
HER “ we don’t have a list”
ME “ well how do you know in what order to take patients back?”
HER “ we have our system”
ME “ give my ID, and insurance card back, I’m going home”.
HER “ Well let me go talk to the doctor”
She disappears for a few minutes and returns
HER “ Well the Dr. said that if you leave your condition could worsen”
ME “ Just give me my ID, so I can go home”
Her “ But your next on the list”
ME “ Im sure I am”
HER “ You don’t have to get an attitude with me”
I don’t say a word, I walk out defeated, mentally and physically drained from the ordeal. Oh well right, we live and we learn, I learned that I was never going to go back to Clear Lake regional hospital, but the story does not end. I could have tolerated her rudeness and went about my business.
A month later I receive a bill from Clear Lake Regional Hospital. Apparently they went ahead and billed my insurance over $200 for an emergency room visit, but there was a $40 balance still due. What!
Of course I call the billing company and inquire. Yes I was billed for that date. I make the official request to contest the bill and receive a conformation number. I find out that the billing entity is not even within the hospital or the states. If it were, it would be a simple matter of walking to the emergency room records, pulling them and finding that I was not attended to on that date or time. I was assured that I would be receiving written correspondence in regards to the issue.
Nope , what I have received is three more bills and last week a nice pink letter , threatening to send the balance due to a collections agency, which I have absolutely no doubt they are going to do regardless.
I just wanted to pass on this information so that anyone doing a pre emergency room search would benefit from my terrible experience.
On a side note I have been trying to contact Blue Cross Blue Shield so that they could attempt to recoup monies spent on nothing.
Or was I in fact charged for breathing the air in the emergency room waiting room?
