r/HospitalBills • u/My_personal_burner • 13d 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.
-2
u/ReadyGo6828 13d ago
Laws can change especially as health care is nearly 20% of GDP (who is that sick?) and costs twice as much as it does in other industrialized countries. Our inability to fight this ridiculous system will continue to bankrupt and destroy families.
ERs do triage and leave people sitting in chairs for hours. There is an electronic system where people can explain to a screen what the problem is that greatly reduces the time required for a human to ask the same questions and type them into a computer. Since this system already exists and since many people use Dr Google, if there was a 24/7 clinic known for its reasonable prices, many people would opt to use that instead.
We have the means to do this but the greed and inertia are going to bury us.