[PopeDotNinja]

You can get screwed even with insurance. I had a bike accident in 2006, breaking both of my arms required me to get a bi lateral radial head replacement. It turned out the hospital to which I was sent was out of my insurance network, and I ended up getting an out of network bill for $50,000 USD.

[arethuza]

My wife had a bad climbing accident in Glencoe a few years back and was rescued by the local mountain rescue team working in conjunction with an RAF helicopter and taken to Fort William hospital.

The only thing we were left with was the suggestion from the (awesome) nurse to "Come back to Fort William, but don't come back here!"...

[jacquesm]

Man that sucks. The whole 'out of network' thing sounds like a perfect excuse. As though patients have a whole lot of control over which parties the insurance companies sign up with.

[PopeDotNinja]

And you can't avoid it really. I asked the hospital if they took my insurance as I was being rolled into the ER. They said yes. That means that they are happy to bill the insurance, not that that are in the insurance network.

Check out this story: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy...

[jacquesm]

For contrast: I also had a biking accident, broke my right leg in six places, pretty complex breaks too. Seven hours of operations and a lot of effort to get back to normal which more or less worked. Total cost: $500 or so in deductibles, not a cent more. I still have half an Ikea in my right leg on account of this little trip for my health, still debating whether to have it removed or not, which will be free because it is related to the original accident.

That story is disgusting, what I find really shocking is that apparently if you get the media interested suddenly your bill evaporates.

[crispyporkbites]

Head replacement? For $50k that sounds like a bargain!

[PopeDotNinja]

Ha! Joking aside, I needed 2 implants of to replace these these => https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_radius