Snakebite victim is billed a staggering $55,000 by the hospi

[kingsnake]

$50,000 for four bags does seem a bit excessive ...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... tment.html

... but at least she was not this kid:

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=7739

Btw, she mentioned it felt like a bee sting. Which means I was totally justified this afternoon when my first thought after getting a serious pain in the butt -- make a joke *eye roll* -- was that a snake had bitten me in the left cheek. (Turned out it was something more mundane. Details in tomorrow's triplog.)

[Jim]

In April, at the place I work, we had a meeting where a Rep from a company that makes a product called, "Crofab" told use when to use the product (after snake bites). He told us it costs 10,000 dollars per bottle. That might be cost to the hospital or patient, I don't know. Either way, there is a drawer in the fridge that has a probably around $100,000 dollars of the stuff in it.

[kingsnake]

Not that that is cheap, but it seems more in line with what I've read elsewhere.

And the junkies will go for the oxycodone instead. Silly junkies ...

[hippiepunkpirate]

Well I just got the bill for my 2 hour ER visit in which I left with two staples for a head laceration. Total cost is nearly $28,000. Of course nearly half of that is the price of the catscan. The itemized listing has some very vague items, such as "emergency room -general classification" for over $3,000. Sounds like quite a pricey single day entrance fee, doesn't it. Makes a $5 Red Rock Pass sound like chump change.

[Jim]

Well, we don't keep much oxy in the med drawers. Still, junkies can get scripts for it, have it filled, and sell it to others. Not a lot one can do with a 10,000 dollar bottle of anti-venom. I wonder if there is a black market for it?

Everyone should read the recent TIME Magazine article on healthcare costs. It doesn't matter if you love or hate Obama, if you think people should have universal healthcare or be dying in the streets because they're bankrupted by medical bills from treatments that never cured a them, or whatever, the cost of healthcare is outrageous, and it isn't because "we got the best in the universe".

Jake, I might have declined that head CT. Especially if I had not lost consciousness, and did not have a number of other changes or problems. Can they save lives? Yes. Are they as necessary as we are led to believe? No. Are they an enormous cash cow? Absolutely! I've seen providers order head CTs for a 5 year old that fell from a shopping cart. If I were that parent, I wouldn't want my child to get that much radiation.