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Hospital rings up $2755 upcharge by sending pregnant woman to ER
Poudre Valley Hospital is a clip-joint.
“American health care billing horror stories” is one of my favorite, love-to-hate-it genres. The 24/7 gaslighting delivered by the health-industrial complex is quite a mind-zap and it’s nice to get these reminders that we’re not all hallucinating here.
Now, the very best versions of these stories are the successful self-defense/happy ending tales, the sort of thing the Arm and a Leg Podcast specializes in. They’re a powerful tonic against despair.
But I confess to taking a certain guilty satisfaction from the truly ghastly tales of medical billing, the sort of thing featured in Rae Ellen Bichell’s “Bill of the Month” feature in Kaiser Health News. And this month’s is a doozy.
When Caitlin Wells Salerno, a conservation biologist, went into labor in Apr 2020, she presented herself at the Poudre Valley Hospital in Ft Collins, CO. The hospital had locked all its entrances except for its emergency room, so she entered the ER.
Now, Wells Salerno didn’t need any emergency care. She declined a wheelchair ride to the obstetrics department, walking and even pausing for a selfie. Nevertheless, the hospital billed her for Level…
