Medical Consumers Aren’t Even In the Loop
A nice note from friends in California, with news that Ed had a stress-test evaluation that led his doctor to arrange an angiogram. He’s fine and the tests showed nothing abnormal, so everyone’s relieved. There were no symptoms of chest-pain or shortness of breath, but you can never be too careful. A one-day outpatient procedure that Ed walked in for and walked away from. No big deal.
Until the bill arrived.
Sit down, catch your breath, unless you’re part of the health-care stream and then maybe you’ll just smile knowingly. $19,000.00. You read that right, nineteen thousand dollars. For an eight-hour procedure, six hours of which was merely lying still in a recovery room. No anaesthetic, no invasive procedure, unless you call inserting a catheter into a vein invasive. They squirt some dye into your bloodstream and then take X-rays. Good old Ed, bless his heart, didn’t even miss dinner at home and playing with the dog.
Ed was covered by his insurance, thank god. But at least 45 m…