Beaked Salmon Emergency Phys. Dr Owen Unethicaland Exorbitant Emergency Room Charges Valdosta Georgia

I'm sure many people think if your doctor sends you to your local ER and you are treated there, that your insurance will pay. NOT TRUE for Emergency room physicians such as DR Owen of Beaked Salmon Emergency PHys iat South Ga. Mecial Center. This doctor examined my husband, (after we waited 5 hours with husband in extreme pain)spent less than 5 minutes on exam and, as it turned out later, was INCORRECT in his diagnosis.

Then his company, Beaked Salmon sent us a bill for $1400. For less than 5 minutes. We have good insurance and assumed they would pay this. NO--this is when we found out that Dr Own and Beaked Salmon are not in-network providers. We were never told this at the hospital, or given a choice whether we wanted to see him or not. WE had NO IDEA that they could provide treatment and bill us without our consent.This is surely unethical and a scam, if not illegal. How many people, have run into this type of shady medical practices and billing charges? Most of us pay a lot for health insurance and are not expecting this type of outrageous additional bills.I mean, this was on top of the many thousands of dollare our insurance did pay to the hospital, surgeons, etc.  iI CANNOT BELIVE THAT MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS ARE ALLOWED TO CHARGE WHATEVER THEY WANT WITHOUT THE CONSENT OR KNOWLEFDGE OF THE PATIENT. This is truly poor businiess and in particular, poor care for the injured. The doctor should be ashamed of himself and not just trying to make another boat payment off a person in pain.

If you go to the ER of South GA, Medical Center in Valdosta Ga, PLEASE be sure to ask if the doctor seeing you is in-network and what his charges will be. Perhaps if enough people are aware and refuse to pay these inflated charges, this type of  billing inflation and abuse will be made illegal.