It does not have to be a gigantic mess. Being back in the US, I just went to the ER and it was shocking being discharged and not being able to know what I owe.
It does not have to be a gigantic mess. Being back in the US, I just went to the ER and it was shocking being discharged and not being able to know what I owe.
Do they do something like that in South Africa? It's not exactly known for the high quality of it's institutions.
Paying for better care and experience is possible in any country. Perhaps it's relatively easy, in a high inequity country like SA, to pay for an experience you like. Labor is pretty cheap there. It's gonna cost you more in the U.S. but you can get that experience here too, if you want. Find a doctor who doesn't take insurance or maybe look at Atlas. Bring your checkbook...
One of the outright-grossest things about US ERs is they have dedicated vulture-like staff wandering around to extract billing information from the sick, injured, and distraught, but those folks can't even tell you anything about what it's going to cost (and neither can anyone else).
It seems to be about 3 signatures. But if you don't insist they print the documents off and give you a copy, you could be signing away tons of rights you wish you had down the line.
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Tangentially related to billing, the workflow to check in with one of my clinics requires me to give them permission for more aggressive collection practices than are legally required. I can revoke that permission anytime, but there's no option to turn it down while checking in. So every time I check the box, then immediately talk with the receptionist to add a flag on my account. She takes a screenshot and prints it off for me. From doing that interaction a couple times, I think I'm one of very few people who do it.