So, I know that you are not a typical patient, Miss M. But, I’m thinking we could make a research study out of your healthcare bills. You just turned 14 months old, and your total medical expenses paid out to date is around $300k. The majority of that cost (I’d estimate 95%, without actually looking at the itemized lists) is composed of hospital bills. The doctors receive very little. We are sometimes astonished by how little they receive, and how many of their bills are denied by insurance. I really don’t know how they manage to make a living at it (I guess that explains the long hours…). Your dad calculated that the hospital charged $5 per mL for your saline IV transfusions during your most recent stays. If you need a non-metric reference – a mL is less than a 1/4 teaspoon. For saline.
I know there is a lot of discussion about health care costs in our country these days. I don’t know enough about the economics and realities to understand our own hospital bills, let alone the entire nation’s hospital bills. But from a personal perspective, I don’t feel that quality and value = expense. Meaning, the most highly skilled and valued tasks/people/resources are not the ones who get the most money from our insurer. It’s the mundane things, like saline, that seem to cost ridiculous amounts. Oh, I know, the saline doesn’t actually cost that much. The hospital is charging us for something else, wrapped up in that saline bill. Whether it is to pay for illegal immigrant’s hospital bills, or to pay lawsuit insurance, or maybe to even line their own pockets, is irrelevant. It’s broken. Smart people need to study this (I’m sure they are) and somehow get through the political rhetoric and media circus to get the general public to understand what is going on (because I don’t understand it). I think it would take me 4+ years of multidisciplinary study to understand it. But I wish I did, so that we could make certain we are being as economical as possible in your medical care.
As things are now, we feel that we don’t have a choice. There is one children’s hospital in town. All of the pediatric specialists in our town operate out of that hospital – there are no other options. I’m sure the doctors feel the same pressure – if they want to work in our town, with children, they have to use the local children’s hospital, because “every” other pediatric doctor uses that hospital. It would be difficult to coordinate care if they all worked at different hospitals. My thoughts on this are likely also influenced by the fact that Miss M has not received the best care at this children’s hospital. It’s staffed by young nurses, with minimal experience, who are more interested in texting than in looking after their patients. Miss M has almost died twice under their (insanely expensive) care.
kfscutie 