Emergency Room Charges Articles

Parkersburg, WV: Tami is a single mother trying to make ends meet, so getting a bill for ER overcharges to the tune of $18,000 was the last thing she needed. "I'm going to call the hospital and make a $5 payment so they can't send it to a collection agency," says Tami.

Macon, GA: Emergency room charges are now to the point where publications dedicated to helping Americans save money and maintain fiscal responsibility are including emergency room cost in their recommendations.

Houston, TX: Last New Year's Eve, Vladimir's son wound up in the hospital ER room complaining of severe abdominal pain. Now Vladimir has ER overcharges amounting to almost $100,000. Wait, it gets worse! His son had a perfectly good appendix removed and he is still experiencing abdominal pain!

New York, NY: The habit for some hospitals to inflate emergency room charges for those patients with a capacity to pay (to make up for those patients who don't) has an already over-taxed society seething with rage. With the overall US economic recovery continuing along its anemic path and Americans—many unemployed or underemployed—watching their spending, the prospect of high emergency room fees and other bills for medical service that have the potential to drive up health insurance premiums has Americans seeing red.

Las Vegas, NV: In spite of proposed reforms—dubbed ObamaCare—to US health care, the fact remains that the US system continues to be firmly entrenched in a business model unlike countries such as Canada, which continues as a largely state-run system providing universal health care for the masses without the need for additional insurance. In Canada, at the end of the day, there is no bill for emergency room charges.

Los Angeles, CA: Yesterday marked the first day of hearings regarding President Obama's new federal health care law—Obamacare—with the goal of improving access to care and controlling costs, including Emergency Room Overcharges.

Henderson, NV: A Nevada woman who made her way to the emergency room of the Siena Campus of St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson for suspected food poisoning was appalled with emergency room charges exceeding $10,000. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal (3/12/12), a CT scan procedure represented the lion's share of that emergency room cost.

Los Angeles, CA: It goes without saying that worry and anxiety is palpable in most every emergency room. So getting handed a bill for emergency room overcharges adds insult to injury, to say the least. But most people don't realize that they can dispute medical bills.

Palm Beach, FL: The idea of going to the emergency room may be altered by a new policy that is being adopted in medical facilities across the country. Hospital overcharging has been reported, as some ER visits now come with an upfront price tag of $150 for people who do not have an urgent problem, according to Kaiser Health News.

Providence, RI: The issue of emergency room charges may appear to be a symptom of all that is wrong with the current status quo in the American health care system. However, the observation does little to defray the frustration over emergency room costs, when determining the actual cost of a service is next to impossible.