DEAR DR. GOTT: I had an emergency appendectomy 12/13/2011. I went through two different ERs (two CT scans) and one surgery to remove it. I spent one night in the hospital and then was released. A week later I had some problems so I went back to the ER (more CT scans). They found an abscess so I went off to another hospital (more CT scans) to have it drained. I spent four days in that hospital (more CT scans to know all is clear). A week later I was found to have a blood clot (lots of ultrasounds). I’m perfect now.

Now it’s time to pay. According to my account on my insurance company’s website, all the various providers (maybe 15 or 20) requested a total of $122,000. The hospital that handled the abscess wanted $92,050 for the testing, the procedure to drain it, and four days in the hospital. The insurance company paid about $14,000 total to all providers. [Read more...]