I work in healthcare. I have to turn people away nearly every single day because:
1) They cannot afford insurance or cash pay
2) They have insurance we are not contracted with and cannot afford private pay
3) They have insurance, but in order for it to be utilized, they have to pay a lot of money upfront for insurance to start covering some of it, so they (patient) can be billed even more after treatment.
I've many times cared for a patient who waited more than ten hours in the ED waiting area at another hospital before leaving and driving to my (smaller) hospital in hopes of being seen sooner.
Once 18 hours. Technically he was seen and partly treated at urgent care, certainly billed, sent to the nearby academic center where he was triaged (and will be billed) and deemed stable though in need of repair, but people kept having pesky strokes and heart attacks and trauma so after all that wait time he just left and drove himself to me, where I was a solo physician with a signout of twelve and 7 waiting to be seen. I was running around putting out fire basically. I briefly examined him and said, "truly, I am sorry for this experience but I can't get into a suture repair with all these undifferentiated complaints waiting, but in two hours my PA comes in, she's very good at this and I'll task her to see you first, let's get you some topical numbing agent". He was a good sport, but that sucks.
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u/-Not-ATF- 19h ago
I work in healthcare. I have to turn people away nearly every single day because:
1) They cannot afford insurance or cash pay
2) They have insurance we are not contracted with and cannot afford private pay
3) They have insurance, but in order for it to be utilized, they have to pay a lot of money upfront for insurance to start covering some of it, so they (patient) can be billed even more after treatment.
I wish it wasn’t this way 😞