“CBS Mornings” host Tony Dokoupil interviewed KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal about January’s Bill of the Month installment, a collaboration with NPR. The Bhatt family of St. Peters, Missouri, was charged $1,012 for an emergency room visit for son Martand. The toddler had burned his hand on a stove days before, and, after it started blistering, his pediatrician recommended a trip to the emergency room at the nearest children’s hospital.
A nurse practitioner examined the child and recommended a surgeon also see the wound. But the surgeon didn’t show after more than an hour, and the family left without the dressing on the wound even being changed.
Why was the bill $1,012? Facility fees. These fees are “a construct of American medicine,” Rosenthal said, “basically a room usage fee.”
The Doctor Didn’t Show Up, but the Hospital ER Still Charged $1,012
A St. Louis-area toddler burned his hand on the stove, and his mom took him to the ER on the advice of her pediatrician. He wasn’t seen by a doctor, and the dressing on the wound wasn’t changed. The bill was more than a thousand dollars.
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