Last summer I received a $9,000 bill for an overnight hospital stay that I probably could have done without, medically speaking. It started two days earlier, when I went in for a prostate biopsy. Mind you, this was my third biopsy and each one, including this one, turned out to be negative. Nevertheless, my doctor keeps asking me to undergo these invasive procedures. As in the past, I was instructed to drink plenty of water after the visit to avoid blood clots, and as in the past, I dutifully obeyed.
Only this time, my voiding stream following the procedure became progressively weaker that evening until finally, around midnight, it trickled and then crawled to a complete stop. With my loins beginning to lock down around my kidneys like a vise, I called an on-call MD, who promptly instructed me to go straight to an ER for catheterization, something I dreaded. But the pain was so great and my systolic pressure so high, that once I made my way to the ER via a city ambulance that stopped at every red light, I was begging to be uncorked. And when they did, what came out wasn’t a dribble, a cup, or even a quart of fluid, but like Old Faithful, an endless geyser that filled three urinal drainage bags. The residents kept peeking through the curtains in disbelief. Apparently, I had been a good patient, quaffing enough water following the biopsy to fill a small pond.
But then came a $9,000 decision. The MD wanted to keep me in the hospital overnight for monitoring, as some of my electrolytes were out of whack. There was no mention of cost. I was perfectly happy to leave the ER with a Foley catheter strapped to my leg, since I had arranged for it to be removed by my clinic after the weekend. It never dawned on me to ask, “Will this hospital stay be covered by insurance?” and at 2:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning, there was no one at the insurance company to call. In fact, I was so preoccupied with pain and the possibility of kidney damage, that my checking account balance was not even on my radar.
A few weeks later, however, I received a Notice of Denial of Coverage from my insurance company informing me that the hospital stay was not deemed medically necessary and that I was responsible for the full 9 grand. There is something terribly wrong with our health care system when an uneventful overnight hospital stay to monitor potassium levels costs as much as a luxury three-week African safari. Frankly, I’ll take the vacation.
Mitchell Batavia is a physical therapist.
