Hospitals Should be Care Providers not Loan Sharks

[DesertFlower]

4. i have to agree. when my husband had a seizure i called

911. he was taken to a "for profit" hospital. he spent less than 24 hours there before being transferred to St. joseph's barrow neurological institute. the for profit hospital (arrowhead in glendale, az) billed the insurance $23,102.25 for room and board. that did not include doctors and tests. st. joseph's charged $117,601 for room and board for 10 days. do the math.

3 days after he was discharged from arrowhead i got a phone call saying he didn't pay when he was discharged. they told me what we owed -- $2,728.27 -- their estimate after insurance. i told them i would pay them after they billed insurance and i knew exactly what we owed. they gave me a hard time saying that was their policy. i told them they would get what they were owed after they went through the proper channels.

fortunately we had good insurance and our max "out of pocket" per person was a little over $6,000. hubby passed 3 months later. he was home for 5 weeks and then we found out his brain tumor had grown tremendously. neurosurgeon said he had a few weeks. he lived for almost 8 weeks more. first in hospice -- then a month in assisted living before he was transferred back to hospice where he passed a week later. i did have to pay $3,000 for assisted living. we had a long term care policy, but those policies don't go into effect until 90 days after approval of the home.

he got wonderful care in st. joe's. i couldn't believe their menus. they had about 5 of them, regular, gluten free, low carb, cardio and there was no exact time for meals. when he felt like eating all he had to do was pick up the phone and call the cafeteria.