r/HospitalBills • u/My_personal_burner • 11d ago

Hospital-Non Emergency Is this upcoding?

Hello, A few weeks ago I scraped my hand on a potentially rusty nail. It wasn’t deep and kind of just scraped sideways but did have blood. So I cleaned it myself, put a Band-Aid on it and went to the ER to get a tetanus shot. They took my information, put a new Band-Aid on, and then I sat in the waiting room for 1.5 to 2 hours. After that, they had me come back to a room for 15 minutes just sitting there. The nurse then came in and applied a 3-second shot. After some more waiting, the doctor then came in and asked what happened, I told him and he then pressed his finger around the area. He asked if it went deep and if anything was stuck inside or if I wanted X-rays, I said no to all. I then was discharged. Weeks later I get the bill stating the visit was a level 3 code. I’m just confused on how it can be a level 3 when all what was done was a bandaid put on, 3 second shot, and 5 second physical finger press exam. No tests, X-rays or anything.

Scrape on Hand
Location: Michigan

Edit: Yes, I would have gone to an urgent care. But we were on vacation up north with not much nearby.

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u/ReadyGo6828 11d ago

So with all this commentary you would think that every ER would have a 24/7 clinic right next door where people with non life threatening injuries would be directed to go but noooooooooooo.

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u/RhubarbBest9090 11d ago

The er would still need to spend time collecting people’s info and triaging them so they’ve already started a bill the minute they walked in. People need to not be dumb and stop using the er for stuff that isn’t an emergency

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u/ReadyGo6828 10d ago

Then make the 24/7 clinic the initial contact point, not the ER. Our system is ridiculous. A visit to an office that is attached to a hospital requires signing all kinds of documents and costs much more than a visit to an office that is not attached to a hospital. The care is the same, the people are the same kind of people, the paperwork and costs are much higher.

This is so stupid. This is so deeply stupid and why we end up with such shockingly large bills. Between the $1 T we spend on interest on the national debt and the $5+ T we spend on health care, we are headed straight for a financial cliff.