Comments on: Once more, I’m only shocked that everyone else is pretending to be. They ARE just pretending, right..?

By: RobW

RobW — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:07:23 +0000

Oh, and totally agreed that the only way anyone could be shocked at the Aberdeen scandal is if they’d never actually spent time in the military. And no, having friends and relatives in the service doesn’t count. I guarantee servicemembers’ behavior around civilians is markedly different than around just each other.

By: RobW

RobW — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 11:03:34 +0000

I’m sure that a lot of that 80% is self-selection.

About 5 years ago, I wrecked my motorcycle, high-siding it in traffic at about 45 mph, avoiding a car that pulled out in front of me.

I was, miraculously, relatively unhurt, just some pretty severe road rash on my arms and hands. I had enough adrenalin flowing through me that I managed to get right up- and throw my helmet really, really hard at the idiot kid driver who’d nearly killed me.

Right after the police arrived, an ambulance showed up. They gave me a quick once-over, then asked me to get in for a ride to the hospital for a thorough check. I felt ok, but was still shaking from the adrenalin rush and crash.

Looking at the open back door of the ambo, I knew, I just knew, that I really should go. They were practically pleading with me to go.

All I could think of was that the ride alone was going to cost a week’s pay. A ride plus x-rays and exam would be two week’s pay. A ride plus a CAT scan would be a month’s pay, or about the value of the bike I’d just wrecked. And that’s if there was nothing wrong.

I turned them away and got a ride home from my father. I was lucky that time; beyond the scrapes and a general soreness all over the next day, I was ok. But I could have just as easily keeled over that night from a brain hemmorhage or something.

By: girl

girl — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:39:46 +0000

My experience was that not only insurance information, but additional confirmation of insurance information was demanded prior to a life flight, after the hospital had done what they could with their own equipment. Maybe that counts as another at-the-door screen?

By: LadyGrey

LadyGrey — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:41:56 +0000

Speaking from experience as an ED doc… I agree that for most patients, you get asked about insurance before you see a doctor and get any treatment. (Though at least in my hospital, the clerks collecting that info aren’t then chatting with us about it, and while I could look up someone’s insurance status in the computer if I wanted to, I think the guy quoted is right that it’s not generally on the treating doctor’s radar. On the hospital’s, absolutely; not on the individual doctor’s).

in a serious trauma, though, where the person is being rushed in and a million people are descending on them to start IVs and maybe intubate them or put in chest tubes, as he says, insurance info is always found out much later. Hell, if it’s bad enough we don’t even find out the person’s name for hours.