r/mildlyinfuriating • u/FemaleXEnigma • 11h ago
That's not milk Just gave birth and the hospital said they will charge me for medication that I BROUGHT.
I informed the nurse that I have albuterol and prenatals with me and she said that if I were to take them, they’d have to be checked into the hospital, given back to me, and they’d charge me for “administering my medication”.
Hospitals are a joke smh
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u/funktion666 11h ago
Ask for an itemized bill. Make sure they aren’t charging you for blankets you don’t use and bs like that.
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u/Nickthedick3 11h ago
My dying dad was charged for “tv usage” while on a morphine drip, knocked out for 95% of the time. The nurse turned it on for background noise.
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u/gardengirl99 8h ago
I should’ve checked to see if my insurance got charged for my child in the PICU to have the television on. My newborn. To Law and Order SVU aka sexual assault unit. And I’m a victim, by the way. Just what I want have on when I visit my extremely ill child.
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u/Nickthedick3 6h ago
Some people just lack the common sense to think “is this an appropriate show for a hospital?”
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u/Picokitti 5h ago
I don’t even watch tv. I read or do stuff on my phone. But they kept turning it on. I kept turning it off.
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u/black_dragonfly13 5h ago
Or for a literal newborn!!! I know they can't understand but that is just nasty.
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u/maybemaryjane 8h ago
Today I learned they charge for tv usage. Wtf.
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u/SilentPlanet_23 8h ago
They do in the NHS too, because it's owned by a private company.
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u/PurbulentTriest 7h ago
You have to pay for that yourself at the hospital from what I remember. Or just use your phone or whatever like most do
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u/Quarantine722 7h ago
What and pay the phone charging fee?
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u/pyromat1k 6h ago
Uhh duh? Soon it’ll be $0.50 per breath taken because those HVAC systems don’t pay for themselves.
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u/what3v3ruwantit2b 7h ago
Certainly not everywhere. I've never worked for a hospital that does that (or for stupid things like blankets and pillows.) We also didn't charge for diaper, wipes, or formula so we would load families up when they were leaving.
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u/Spiderbundles 8h ago
That’s really dependent on the individual hospital system; I didn’t get any tv charges on any of my last 3 hospital stays.
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u/CoolDiscussion1020 7h ago
Yeah, hospital here has the free basic cable in each room but you can pay for premium channels. To be fair, their basic cable is like 11 channels and is just whatever local broadcast is so local news affiliates and PBS.
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u/Genybear12 7h ago
I’m so old i remember when the local hospital would bill your phone company for usage of the phone IN the hospital. Same for the TV… I’m 41
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u/yourbrokenoven 6h ago
What on earth? I've been a nurse 20 years and have never heard of this practice. What part of the world does this, out of curiosity?
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u/Genybear12 6h ago
It was a super super small town hospital in New York. Hospital is out of business now so maybe it was a shady practice they were doing? I don’t remember it being a thing in Ireland where I’m a dual citizen so it confused all of us when it happened
ETA: it was the late 90’s when it happened
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u/swingswickedchucks 8h ago
That is insane, omg that infuriates me! And I dont even know your dad! The very fucking idea!
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u/Nickthedick3 7h ago
If it’ll make you feel better, because it did for us, when they gave us the bill, we just laughed in their face and threw it away.
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u/davesFriendReddit 8h ago
Did he dispute it or did his insurance dispute it?
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u/Nickthedick3 6h ago
We got the bill while in the process of losing the house, after his death. My mom essentially said “fuck it, let it go to the estate.” We never heard anything about it after that.
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u/HighlyOffensive10 7h ago
I'm honestly just tired of everyone and everything trying to hustle money out of me.
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u/NotTheGreenestThumb 11h ago
I was once charged for oxygen “because it was available in the room”. I refused to pay that part. They didn’t fight me on it.
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u/Practical-String5146 11h ago
Like the oxygen you breathed during your stay? You better pay for that!
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u/NotTheGreenestThumb 9h ago
No, they meant the oxygen connection in the wall that heart or lung patients need to get their blood oxygen up to par.
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u/pguyton 9h ago
What is this? Spirit Airlines? lol
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u/Working-Glass6136 8h ago
More like Spirit Halloween because the system is run by ghouls.
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u/Orbital_Dinosaur 9h ago
Ain't jack for free, I think they'd try a tax to breathe
- The Calling by Hilltop Hoods in 2009.
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u/Colossus-of-Roads 6h ago
Ironically I'm from the same city as the Hoods and it's in a country where we have universal public health.
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u/NothingSavings2682 10h ago
The fact that they’re even legally allowed to do this is diabolical. And people wonder why Luigi became a public hero
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u/Common-Seesaw6867 9h ago
I don't wonder at all. I scratch my head at people who don't get it.
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u/DecadentLife 10h ago
I caught my pinky toe on the edge of my bed, when I was cleaning. It bent my toe all the way, 180° so it was flush against my foot, but in the wrong direction.
I went to the ER, they told me all they could do was tape it to the toe next to it, then they gave me the piece of tape and told me to do it myself. When I got the bill, that 2 inch piece of typical medical tape, cost me $65, out of pocket. That was after whatever my Insurance paid for it.
To put it even more in perspective ($$-wise), this happened 25 years ago.
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u/liveliarwires 9h ago
That's why when I slammed my pinky toe into furniture and it went sideways and turned crazy colors, I just taped it to it's neighbor and busted out the ice pack.
Like, what in the actual fuck of a country is this.
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u/Curious_Version4535 9h ago
Same. I’ve broken several toes and I’ve always dealt with it myself.
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u/liveliarwires 9h ago
My friend was HORRIFIED that I wasn't going to the hospital. Like, girl, they are literally gonna do the same thing in the end but just make me pay thousands of dollars. It's fine.
Sorry you've had to do the same.
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u/taktyx 8h ago
I saw a case like this where a guy did that, went septic, and ended up dead. But the skin was broken and he didn’t get in deep enough to scrub it out.
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u/liveliarwires 8h ago
Don't worry. If I had any concern, I definitely would have consulted reddit!
No broken skin, and the bruising continually diminished. Nothing was getting worse.
Don't fuck around with deep wounds/ punctures. That's antibiotic time, for sure.
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u/MarionberryOk2874 10h ago
I went to the ER with either food poisoning or a stomach bug, couldn’t stop throwing up. I’ve been in menopause since 2018, it was a full 6 years without a period at that point. They charged my insurance $300 for a pregnancy test they apparently ran for no reason - never asked me any questions around my period, sex, or pregnancy. Unreal.
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u/cellrdoor2 8h ago
I had to take a pregnancy test once a week during my radiation treatments. The funny thing is that one of the testing days also happened to be a day where they had to send me to another floor because a machine was down. They wanted to test me on that floor too and I refused on the grounds they I hadn’t fucked anyone in the elevator on the way up.
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u/cathygag 9h ago
They did this to one of my classmates in grad school. She fought the charge, they told her it was routine for all women of child bearing age before x-rays.
She asked the girl if she reads and write the English language at a functional level, and if the same level of intellectual capacity and reading level is required for the ER’a nursing staff? The girl immediately got snotty with her. She asked if her if she and the ER staff had access to very lengthy packet of medical hx documentation she was required to fill out during her ER admission- well yes, of course. She then referred her to the section on gynecology hx- where she noted that she had an emergency full hysterectomy over two decades earlier following c-section complications following the birth of her youngest. 🤦🏼♀️
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u/Ok_Dust_7325 9h ago
That’s insane. They always ask women when their last period was. If it was 6 years since your last period, a pregnancy test was completely unnecessary.
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u/MarionberryOk2874 8h ago
Exactly! They never even asked me.
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u/No_Atmosphere_6348 7h ago
I recall being asked about it once and I declined the pregnancy test because it was pretty unlikely.
Those cost $1.50 at dollar tree so $300 is insane.
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u/ChaosAzeroth 6h ago
Genuinely want to make it clear I'm in no way trying to Suffering Olympics or one up, this just reminded me of something.
Yeah healthcare being insanely expensive is why I stayed home when I had food poisoning bad enough that I was throwing up water for a week (couldn't even dry swallow three days of it) hoping I was keeping down enough water to not die.
Sure didn't do that for fun. On top of how expensive it is they love to add ridiculous charges absolutely not possible.
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u/universal_friend1 8h ago
A big part of it is because the risk of potential harm running an unnecessary pregnancy test when you are already getting blood or urine is basically 0. But the risk of giving even routine medications to a person who turns out to be pregnant are MASSIVE. Something like Ketorolac(Toradol, basically IV ibuprofen) a first line non-steroidal anti inflammatory/non-opiate pain control medication goes from being only contraindicated due to allergy to now there's a fetus thats never going to have working kidneys. It also just immediately checks a handful of different things and complications off of the differential diagnosis for anything abdomen/GI/gynecological.
That being said they gave me a pregnancy test when I had tonsillitis and I have a penis, don't pass, and my chart says "Transgender Woman" on it lmao.
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u/MarionberryOk2874 8h ago
I mean, I get that it’s a little bit of a CYA - but it could have completely been avoided with one question. I fought it and at first they told me that it was the ‘standard of care’ for a woman with nausea and vomiting - but eventually they let me know that they reconsidered and took it off.
Someone with a brain must have realized it was a waste of money and resources.
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u/SilverDarner 9h ago
I contested the anesthesiology supplies on the bill for my kid's birth. I was like, "Great, who signed off on them? Because I never saw an anesthesiologist anywhere near the room."
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u/chaosuniverses 11h ago
Yeah. I was charged for a unopened fan they put in my room without me asking for it.
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u/Ok_Dust_7325 9h ago
Did you take it with you when you were discharged? I would have. They’ll probably throw it out anyway if you used it.
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u/Common-Seesaw6867 9h ago
My aunt was monitoring her FIL's bills. They kept charging him an outrageous amount for a new pair of slippers, every month. The old man was in a coma (i.e., non-ambulatory), and only had one leg anyway (thanks to diabetes). Every month she had the same argument with the nursing home. Thanks, 'Murican health care. 😒
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u/salamanderme 10h ago
Once the dentist tried charging us a couple hundred dollars for showing my then 10 year old how to use a toothbrush.
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u/ObjectivePhase3475 9h ago
I was a dental hygienist way back in 1976. Explaining proper dental care was part of the visit. Fast forward to around 2014 and I was a freelance writer for a dental hygiene magazine. While interviewing the hygienist managing Midwest offices of a national chain, I can still remember my disgust when she enthusiastically said oral hygiene is now an added cost.
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u/QuinnTigger 9h ago
I had a dentist put a charge for instruction on one of my bills as an adult. I was like, what? What do you think you taught me? They removed the charge.
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u/Fresh-Yoghurt8622 8h ago
I had a dentist charge me for looking at my tongue during my bi annual cleaning routine. Like WTF, i said i never asked her to look at my tongue, not for $30, i can inspect my own tongue for free.
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u/Dizzy_Corgi_9781 10h ago
I asked for an itemized bill last time I was in the hospital and they just said, “you can see a cost breakdown in your portal.”
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u/TheBelicia 2h ago
So like 50/50 shot the person didn't know how to use the EMR/EHR system. I work in medical record collection and the amount of times I have heard the records/billing manager basically say "I've been here 30-40 years back when we used paper charts, and just can't learn these computer systems." Is concerning.
Also not to say I haven't come across plenty of younger staff in same boat, but I hold management to a higher bar.
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u/CoffeeBox 7h ago
When my mother was in the hospital she asked for a tissue to blow her nose. They gave her one of those pocket tissue packs that cost about $0.20. After she died it showed up on the itemized list for $10.00.
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u/neverabadidea 8h ago
During my post-birth hospital stay, they charged me $200 for a pump rental I never used nor even saw. 🫠
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u/Knackered_DropBear 7h ago
My bonus daughter is Australian and in 2021, at 33 yrs old, she had a stroke (a dislodged blood clot found its way through a small unknown/undiagnosed hole in her heart, landing at the base of her brain) that froze her entire left side. It was terrifying! She could talk somewhat but couldn’t walk, use her arm, etc…could only just lay there and watch TV while in hospital. Or so we thought. It was a public hospital and come to find out you have to pay to watch tv, $15/day. I was livid! It was literally all she could do and the hospital charges for it. The snarky nurse informed me it was not a necessity and considered a luxury. She was also absolutely annoyed with me that I was American and didn’t know this, that it’s standard. With 2 young children at home it was the last thing my daughter and son-in-law could afford so of course we’ll pay it. She couldn’t move, was so scared & worried, and couldn’t even watch TV. After some back and forth with the nurse she gave me the website info where I could get a package deal for her and once I did that she would “go ahead and turn the TV on for her”. Gee thanks. I paid $30 for 3 days then bought the week-long package for $55. When that was up I bought another week and she was discharged 4 days later but of course there was no refund. It is so ridiculous to me. It’s stressful enough having to be in hospital and one should not have to worry about paying for TV while they are recovering.
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u/always_sweatpants 6h ago
I was charged for lactation consultant at my second birth. She walked in the door, tried to correct my hold, I said "I got this and I'm absolutely good" and her exiting the room saying "I guess but you should call me" was a $1200 charge. You must be out of your goddamn mind. I got that wiped after fighting for an hour.
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u/Ill_Brick3291 7h ago
They charge for BLANKETS? The thin barely-not-a-sheet pieces of fabric that still leave you freezing your nicked bitt off?
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u/7gramcrackrock 7h ago
When my step sister was killed, they charged for pillows and blankets. She was already dead by the time she got to the hospital.
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u/Ancient_Draw2176 6h ago edited 4h ago
Everytime i go annually for my contacts prescription they make me do a “trying on” test for the same brand. It doesnt come out of my copay (directly) but its still so funny, and this is every opthamologist ive been to.
Even the last time I went I tried to politely decline and she was like “No I need you to try them on” bc its billed as a fitting to insurance
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u/Johnny_Soprano_Saint 11h ago
This is America.
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u/Nihilistic_Navigator 11h ago
Don't catch you slippin now
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u/Sammi1224 11h ago
“Look what I’m whipping now”
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u/Ok_Mathematician_314 9h ago
Police be trippin now
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u/PM_me_dat_Poutine 7h ago
Guns in my area...
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u/Dragoon-The_Great 7h ago
I got the strap, I gotta carry em
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u/Arry42 5h ago
Look how I'm geekin' out.
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u/SaltLakeBear 5h ago
I'm so fitted
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u/Remarkable_Toe_164 5h ago
I'm on gucci (i'm on gucci)
I'm so pretty (yeah, yeah)
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u/wildsnowdrop 10h ago
This is how I can tell. Because it's frigging insane. The medication should be administered because you need it. It's bonkers.
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u/Bhujjha 9h ago
Usually I would be mildly annoyed that without context the comments all assume the OP to be in USA. Like asking for advice on something and a bunch of people going oh you can just get that at Walmart or Trader Joes or whatever without specifying first where the person is located.
But yeah in this case, no further context needed. No other country on Earth is that broken.
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u/matatunos 4h ago
I’m not assuming it’s the United States, but I’m sure it’s not my country. Here, you can’t bring your own medication into the hospital, much less take it without telling the doctors. And if you need something, they’ll give it to you the proper way. And when you leave the hospital, there won’t be a bill for anything—zero. Everything is already paid for.
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u/Ban-Circumcision-Now 10h ago
Yep, if it’s a boy they also aggressively demand a tip…. And then bill you for it
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u/Abaddonalways 10h ago
Wild how circumcision is a Jewish tradition, and American hospitals shame you if you want to opt out.
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u/OlderThanIvEverBeen 9h ago
That was not my experience. No pressure to circumcise my child.
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u/DVDad82 9h ago
I opted out for both my boys. I couldn't justify it in my head to harm those babies for what might be outdated do to modern access to clean water.
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u/Ok_Dust_7325 9h ago
And then they try to tell us universal health care is impossible in the US. That our country is too big. Every other country does it.
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u/Johnny_Soprano_Saint 9h ago
I mean you don't pay a fireman to put out a fire. Or a cop to shoot a guy. 🤣
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u/Dusty_Rose23 6h ago
Canada is literally bigger by landmass as a country and there are other countries bigger population wise that do it fine so it is no excuse regardless of how you view that sentence
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u/EastTyne1191 11h ago
I understand the need to have a record of medications because of the possibility of interactions, but the price of administration should be low. I say "should" knowing full well it will probably be $50.
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u/paleoterrra 9h ago
Last time I was in ED (Australia) the nurse asked if I wanted nausea meds. I said, oh yeah I’ve got some in my purse (script). She was like “oh great, you can take that as normal then just let me see the package real quick so I can put it on the chart”. And that was that. 0 dollarydoos
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u/gogogadgetdumbass 9h ago
“dollarydoos” is exactly what I’d expect an Aussie to call a dollar.
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u/Flaky-Rain-0714 9h ago
Disclaimer: American here. It just sounds so much more lovely than dollars.
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u/jdgordon 9h ago
Don't you love all these threads about how fucked up American health care is? I had a baby in Feb, she was in an out of NICU for the first 2 months and I've had to take her I to ED at least once a month to get her feeding tube out back in, and the only thing I've had to pay was parking 😂
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u/Major_Lawfulness6122 8h ago
It’s super insane to read about. All I ever have to pay for is parking too and I complain about that 😆
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u/BekahDski1997 8h ago
Fellow NICU mom, here! Thankfully Medicaid covered our baby’s cost his full 106 days in the hospital. He didn’t have to have any surgeries or complex procedures, and the final total bill came out to more than $950k. I looked at the itemized bill at one point and there was literally a $10k/day charge for his incubator/monitors (for the time he was in an incubator, so probably just the first 60 days or so? It’s been a few years)… they were charging us ten grand every single day just to keep him plugged in and alive! Absolute madness.
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u/Unit_79 9h ago edited 9h ago
I was in emergency the other day and they asked what meds I had already taken, then added them to my chart! But that hospital had computers, so it was pretty advanced.
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u/1210bull PURPLE 9h ago
I work in veterinary ER, so maybe my experience is different, but every system I've ever used has allowed you to make a record of something without a charge associated. Even the more advanced ones, where every time you completed a treatment it added to the invoice and the entire thing was automated, there was still an option to either zero out a fee or put in a note for no charge. It would baffle me if human medicine didn't allow for the same.
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u/Dry_Stop844 9h ago
got nothing to do with human medicine and 100% to do with insurance companies who probably own that hospital.
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u/ivorytowerescapee 10h ago
When I was giving birth the hospital charged me for checking my blood sugar ($38 every time). I was reading the number off my dexcom/CGM so all they had to do was type it into the computer. $38!!!!
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u/Then-Departure4896 8h ago
The way they have to chart it, it probably auto-charges you and they have no idea that they’re doing it. I’m a nurse and I know there are endless ways they nickel and dime our patients from the way we chart. It’s fucked up but we also have to chart things, we just get zero say or even education on what things we chart auto-charge the patient for bullshit.
This is kind of hard to read. Sorry.
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u/ivorytowerescapee 7h ago
Oh yeah that's totally what happened, I contacted the hospital and disputed the charge and that's what they told me. To be clear I don't blame the nurse at all, they were all great and just doing their job. It's the system that isn't right.
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u/enadiz_reccos 7h ago
As someone whose wife has spent an unfortunate amount of time in hospitals, thank you so much for all that you do.
In literally dozens of hospital stays, we have had a difficult/unfriendly nurse maybe... 3 times. Even at bad hospitals, the nurses have been good.
I have some seriously choice words for many doctors and a particular motherfucker of a pain management device rep....... but nurses have always been amazing.
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u/upv395 9h ago
Eh, have had many patients who come in with CGM’s that are not giving accurate readings. We do a comparison of your CGM, the hospital glucose monitor and your glucose on your basic chem panel. If your CGM is not reading close to the hospital glucose monitor that is calibrated daily and the lab draw, we do not use your CGM and recommend you get your machine recalibrated and check your supplies to make sure they are not contaminated or damaged. If your CGM is reading close to the hospital labs, we can then proceed to use your CGM. I have seen the home CGM’s read 50-70 points different from the lab draws/ hospital glucose monitor. This really affects safety and treatment.
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u/ivorytowerescapee 8h ago
I totally understand that however they never checked me with the hospital glucose monitor. They only asked me for the cgm reading and I got an individual charge each time.
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u/BekahDski1997 8h ago
Charging a patient for a number that might not even be right is ludicrous. No “Eh” like it’s somehow justified because of the possibility of inaccuracy, no.
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u/DCGuy511 11h ago edited 11h ago
I was in the hospital after my heart attack. I had a terrible headache from the nitroglycerin. The machine in the pharmacy that puts the pills into the cups was broken, so no Tylenol. I went to the gift shop and bought Tylenol. My nurse yelled at me for "taking drugs." She tattled on me.
The Tylenol that was stuck in the machine and the Tylenol I purchased and took myself, were on the bill.
Edited for typos.
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u/yesthatnagia 1h ago
Oh that yelling is a moment to speak to someone's charge nurse very calmly and explain that you no longer trust this person to treat you, do not consent to have them involved in your care, and WILL AMA out and dispute all EOB's with your insurance if you so much as see their face again.
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u/Abiztic2_0 5h ago
My dad was hospitalized and the doctors wouldn't let him administer his own insulin. The hospital staff had to do it.
They gave my dad too much insulin and then forgot to give him any dinner. He nearly died because he wasn't allowed to administer the medication he has used every day for the majority of his life.
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u/HiddenCipher87 11h ago
I don’t understand how enough people want this system, instead of universal healthcare. It beggars belief.
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u/RecentPassage4853 10h ago edited 6h ago
Decades of being lied to by the Republicans and other right wing groups. Who are funded, by the way by the millionaires and billionaires in the health insurance and health Care industry. (By saying that, I do not endorse murder as a solution)
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u/InTransitHQ 4h ago
They complain "Socialized medicine would mean I would have to wait months to see a specialist"...as they wait months to see a specialist.
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u/ImWhy 6h ago
Brainwashing. But they'll tell you they're the ones not brainwashed. To all of us in every other country of the world they seem batshit insane, but somehow they're so brainwashed that it makes sense to them. Like they don't trust the government, and they don't trust "big pharma" because "money", but they also worship the government and trust holistic medicine which is a trillion dollar industry and massively outperforms pharma. But if you try say that, you're just making things up because you've obviously not "done your research"...
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u/Shenendoah66 11h ago
This is less about the hospital trying to charge you for medication you already own and more about medication safety and liability. While you’re admitted, the hospital has to maintain an accurate medication administration record so your care team knows exactly what you’ve taken, the dose, and when. Allowing patients to independently take medications from home creates risks of incorrect doses, drug interactions, duplicate medications, or medications that are no longer appropriate given their current treatment. That’s why home medications generally have to be verified and entered into the hospital’s medication system before they can be used. Whether the amount they charge for that process is reasonable is a completely fair question, but the underlying policy exists for legitimate safety and liability reasons.
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u/MindlessWander_TM 11h ago
Thank you, I couldn't have worded it better myself. They definitely shouldn't be charging patients for it, though. But what do I know? I just work here. 🙃
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u/H2Oloo-Sunset 10h ago
They are not charging for the medication, they are charging for the administration of it. That sounds bureaucratic, but it is about the overhead of everything said above.
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u/InvestmentMain8414 11h ago
And weirdly, in my country I can bring my meds from home, let hospital staff know I have them. They chart it, ensure I take it at the same time everyday...and dont get charged for it.
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u/Bureaucromancer 10h ago
This is the real madness of all these American systems. Somehow to the average American they really do get accepted as obviously necessary and the fact that no other country does anything like it is what baffles them.
See the extended tirades I’ve seen that obviously bounty hunters are the only way criminal bail could ever exist
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u/nicerecyclabletrash 7h ago
it's the same thing with how they need optician appointments like every 6 months in order to buy glasses or contacts online, I've heard Americans argue that it's medically necessary, to check for glaucoma or diabetes or something. Other countries don't have to do it, and americans with good vision aren't regularly going in for glaucoma checks as far as I'm aware, it's just an easy way to just siphon more money
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u/bakercob232 10h ago
Do patients in your country threaten to sue any person wearing scrubs that happens to walk in their room? Because here they do, and this is a direct response to that as is most of the cost associated with healthcare. Malpractice insurance premiums are absolutely insane.
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u/Pear_tickle 10h ago
Strangely, I don’t really trust the hospital
With my medication. They don’t stock it in the first place which is why I have to bring it. If they lose it, I can’t always replace it quickly and hospitals lose special patient items all the time.Anything that isn’t part of the normal cog in the machine just doesn’t work properly. Need a special medication or multiple allergies and the bureaucracy becomes dangerous.
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u/Picokitti 8h ago
Absolutely, then they try to give you a substitute for your medication. Or you tell them that you cannot tolerate artificial sweeteners, but they won’t serve anything with sugar or even have a vending machine with sugar soft drinks. I am not overweight or diabetic. I can have some sugar. But no, the gave me yogurt with aspartame in it. It made me extremely nauseous. Then they couldn’t find a doctor to write an order for an antacid for three hours.
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u/babecafe 9h ago
I've been at hospitals in Germany. They are cool with patients bringing in routine drugs and patients self-administering drugs. The hospital gives patients a dispenser with four wells for drugs to be taken every six hours. This includes opioid medication.
The level of administration in US hospitals is borderline paranoid.
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u/totaltomination 10h ago
Ok, but how is it not just included in the service of being in hospital if it is a natural part of being in there? Why is it extra? Surely the bed, the nurse and the medicine is all paid for already
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u/d0rkfishcorndog 10h ago
Nope. They will do shit like have a specialist PA/physical therapist/administrator walk into the room once a day and charge you for it, and sometimes twice because they aren't on one network/contract/some other nonsense. There is almost nothing included with service anymore.
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u/President_Connor_Roy 10h ago
RN has to bring it or tube it to Pharmacy. A hospital pharmacist then has to identify it, make sure it’s not expired, make sure it matches what the hospital doc ordered, label it with your name and room number, and add a barcode for the RN to scan when you take it. RN has to retrieve it from storage, watch you take it, and chart it administered every time then too. They don’t charge much for all of this but there’s a reason it isn’t free.
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u/Beautiful_Hippo_5574 6h ago
All really great reasons to know what they take, so why encourage patients to just take whatever and lie?
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u/Fit-Stand-5002 11h ago
My nurse told me she technically can't say this but I can bring my prenatals in and just not tell them to avoid this situation. She did ask that I disclose any other meds I bring in but prenatals are fine to hide.
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u/isublindgoat 11h ago
This is actually not great, since some of the components of vitamins, especially prenatal ones with higher iron or whatever can end up causing some meds like certain antibiotics to not work as well if taken too close together. So we specially would time the vitamin to be given a certain number of hours apart from those antibiotics.
Also, we do not charge people for the actual med they bring in, but every time any med is given there is a small fee added because of the reasons others have mentioned. Also, at our hospital a pharmacist has to visually confirm the med brought in is the one the patient says it is, and also that it is not expired. This takes time and effort, although we do not charge a separate “pharmacy fee” in this situation
Source: am hospital pharmacist
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u/DocMeow3 10h ago
Gave birth at a hospital. The hospital charged a daily room fee for me, a daily room fee for my newborn, and a daily room charge for using it as an “operating room”. Same room, billed 3 different ways.
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u/Consistent_Big5018 5h ago
Once my mom brought an X-ray from our prior doctor to a new one. Months later they sent a bill for the X-ray even though in the records it showed it clearly taken from another facility. They tried fighting it saying they took it. 🤣 Even when my mom pointed out the names were different they kept trying to push it. Our Medical system really is a giant joke.
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u/Imaginary_Poetry_233 7h ago
If they put the baby on your chest after the birth they will charge you for a 'skin to skin medical treatment'.
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u/zen_mechanics 4h ago
America is a third world country, currently hell bent on becoming a fourth world country. Lol.
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u/dopedealer92 9h ago
I think the hospital employee may have explained this poorly. I am a hospital pharmacist and if a patient brings their own medications into the hospital we do identify and label them for safety reasons. We cannot charge patients for taking their own medications tho because that is fraud.
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u/kimmy_kimika 11h ago
Medical biller here... Generally if you are admitted to the hospital as an inpatient, the facility bill, which will include all the drug charges, are paid by something called diagnosis related grouper, not by line item. So even if the facility adds a charge for administering those meds, it won't affect your patient responsibility, because that will be determined by the main procedure and the diagnoses on the claim.
Otherwise, I do agree with a lot of the other commenter that this is the safest way for them to track potential drug interactions.
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u/Prinessbeca 10h ago
Came here to say exactly this. In a previous life I was a certified coder through AAPC. You're not actually paying for all of those individual line items on that itemized bill you asked for. The diagnosis code and procedure drive the reimbursement.
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u/WhiskeyDelta89 7h ago
Why Americans aren't rioting in the streets over this shit I'll never understand.
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u/Nona_Ann 10h ago
When my son was born, they charged me for using the tv remote!
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u/SeventhStreetSavages 10h ago
U.S. based Hospital pharmacist here. We strongly encourage our patients not to use home medications. I'm sure a large part is that we lose out on money if the patient doesn't take our supply, but for me there are some very good reasons to avoid the practice.
When a patient is adamant about taking their own meds we have to bring the meds to the pharmacy and have them validated. In my 15 years I've seen: mixed medications in a bottle, meds that are years out of date, controlled substances not labeled as such, completely unidentifiable pills and capsules, and meds that clearly haven't been stored properly (primarily refrigerated injectables).
Maybe signing a waiver that any and all adverse effects from medications cannot be placed on the hospital would work, but I'm sure laywers could work around that.
I'm a jaded healthcare worker who knows that hospital administrations see only dollar signs (in both workers and patients), but please use our meds. We try our best to give you the best outcome.
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u/Affectionate_Ad_2074 7h ago
I live in Canada. When I’m in the hospital, they give me a new albuterol for my stay and then let me take it home to use when I’m discharged because they can’t use it again. And it is free.
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u/Derebeare 10h ago
But Canadian healthcare is so much worse because you might have to wait in a line to get it for FREE!
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u/Total_Guard2405 11h ago
They have to know what you're taking as they prescribe new meds. There can be drug interactions that could make you sick(er). But yeah, I agree, hospitals suck really bad.
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u/eugeneugene 11h ago
damn. I'm not American but when I gave birth they just asked me if I was taking anything and I told them what vitamins I was taking (prenatal being one of them) and they just said ok sounds good lol. Nobody administered me my own vitamins. Obviously didn't get charged for anything either lol
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u/noeyesonmeXx 9h ago
My doctor refused me anti inflammatory drugs after jaw surgery because of a rare blood disease of which I only had one flair up 15 years ago(it could POSSIBLY cause bleeding). Couldn’t understand why I was in pain (SWELLING DUH!?) and wouldn’t release me a week after surgery. My mom finally brought me ibuprofen and I was out in 2 days. Didn’t tell the doc, he was horrible though and treated me like a drug seeker . Like my guy, you aren’t managing my pain, all I want is some motrin bro
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u/Negative_Fruit_1800 8h ago
I totally agree, I hate what healthcare has become. I have worked in this field for 22 years as a nurse/ nurse practitioner and it didn’t use to be like this. Previously, we would just verify the home meds with the pharmacy and then let patients take their own medications. Now hospitals want to get as much money out of you as possible. I could see how much each medication costs and I would tell my patients to bring their own. $365 for an albuterol inhaler ,$5 for a single Tylenol, $1200 for IV Tylenol. The hospital wanted us to use the order sets with scheduled Tylenol every 4-6 hours, but I was on to their tricks so I wouldn’t order anything unless it was absolutely necessary. Imagine you get an extra $10 every 4 hours that’s $60 per day per patient of extra revenue for something that they don’t even need! At discharge I gave my patients back any meds they had purchased while in hospital.
Sorry for the state of medical care today, many of us are working to make it better and don’t agree with what’s happening.
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u/Bungeesmom 6h ago
Just wait until you see the charges for holding your own baby.
Make sure to get an itemized bill and dispute the hell out of it.
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u/shabomb81 6h ago
In Canada, it's the opposite, they just look up all your prescriptions when you're in hospital and dispense them to you while you're there. No cost for the meds or the stay. And before anyone brings up taxes, yes I know how taxes work, thanks.
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u/AfterNun 6h ago
You don’t have to do any of that btw, they’re welcome to discharge you for taking your own supplements but honestly the amount you’ll make from the certain lawsuit might be wonderful. It’s a hospital, not a prison
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u/ThisWasMySistersIdea 5h ago
My elderly grandfather was admitted to the hospital. The only available room was in the maternity ward. HE was charged for labor and delivery. The charge was disputed and everyone had a good laugh about it later.
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u/Ok_Organization_7350 5h ago
She is messing with you; don't be so gullible. You do not have to do every single little thing they say. You could tell her NO, that you DECLINE that.
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u/LughCrow 11h ago
It's a safety thing. And it does require someone do it.
Is it ridiculous? Yes, but not as bad as many other things
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u/JaunteeChapeau 11h ago
Like an uncorking fee