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THE COST OF NOT GETTING TESTED FOR CORONAVIRUS: A $10K ER BILL
The City (NY)
First Brooklyn public school teacher Erin McCarthy began experiencing potential coronavirus symptoms after returning from Italy.
Then a doctor — wearing a hazmat suit — told her she couldn’t be tested because she didn’t fit the criteria at the time.
But that wasn’t her last shock: She recently got a bill saying her fruitless March 2 ER visit cost $10,382.96.
“And I wasn’t even tested,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy is lucky: She has insurance coverage and will only have to cough up a $75 co-pay for her visit to The NYU Langone Health–Cobble Hill emergency department. Her insurance company will pay a negotiated-down rate.
“But imagine if I didn’t have insurance,” McCarthy said, recounting a time when she was uninsured and wound up paying off an ambulance bill for years after she needed transport following a fall.
By noon Tuesday, 36 people in New York City had tested positive for the virus known as COVID-19, a spike over 20 the previous day. Another 195 tests were pending, 30 individuals were in mandatory quarantine and 1,980 were in voluntary isolation, Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed during this now daily press briefing on the global pandemic.
The mayor emphasized that the city is not testing anyone unless they display symptoms.
Sent Home
When she sought the virus test, McCarthy, 44, a veteran teacher at PS 369 in Brooklyn, was suffering from fever, headaches and tightness in her chest. And she’d just returned from a week in regions of Italy where the virus was spreading.
So on March 2, she went to the emergency room at NYU-Langone in Cobble Hill, hoping to be tested. She says she spent about six hours there, mostly waiting, spoke with a doctor for about 20 minutes, and got a chest X-ray.
The doctor told her she was not eligible for testing because, while she was displaying potential COVID-19 symptoms, she was not elderly and did not have immune system issues.
Then a doctor — wearing a hazmat suit — told her she couldn’t be tested because she didn’t fit the criteria at the time.
But that wasn’t her last shock: She recently got a bill saying her fruitless March 2 ER visit cost $10,382.96.
“And I wasn’t even tested,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy is lucky: She has insurance coverage and will only have to cough up a $75 co-pay for her visit to The NYU Langone Health–Cobble Hill emergency department. Her insurance company will pay a negotiated-down rate.
“But imagine if I didn’t have insurance,” McCarthy said, recounting a time when she was uninsured and wound up paying off an ambulance bill for years after she needed transport following a fall.
By noon Tuesday, 36 people in New York City had tested positive for the virus known as COVID-19, a spike over 20 the previous day. Another 195 tests were pending, 30 individuals were in mandatory quarantine and 1,980 were in voluntary isolation, Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed during this now daily press briefing on the global pandemic.
The mayor emphasized that the city is not testing anyone unless they display symptoms.
Sent Home
When she sought the virus test, McCarthy, 44, a veteran teacher at PS 369 in Brooklyn, was suffering from fever, headaches and tightness in her chest. And she’d just returned from a week in regions of Italy where the virus was spreading.
So on March 2, she went to the emergency room at NYU-Langone in Cobble Hill, hoping to be tested. She says she spent about six hours there, mostly waiting, spoke with a doctor for about 20 minutes, and got a chest X-ray.
The doctor told her she was not eligible for testing because, while she was displaying potential COVID-19 symptoms, she was not elderly and did not have immune system issues.
More at link: https://thecity.nyc/2020/03/the-cost-of-not-getting-tested-for-coronavirus-a-10k-bill.html
Spoiler: She eventually got her test and tested negative.
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