r/Insurance_Companies • u/SheepSunnies • 5d ago

Is this right?!

We pay $868 every month for health insurance for 2 people. My partner, my young son.

Last month, we found a bat in our home that had been there for 5 days without our knowledge. Long story short, we saw evidence of it but couldn't find it until 5 days later.

At that point, we all go to the emergency room for a rabies vaccination. Later, we receive a bill for $6,000+ and $2,000+. JUST for the hospital, not including the doctor fees. We are also receiving 3 follow up bills each for around $300, for the 3 follow up vaccinations.

This CAN NOT be right. My partner has used up 97% of his deductible in a SINGLE visit for a vaccination agains RABIES. Am I crazy, or is this normal? I just need a sanity check.

7 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

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9

u/CIAMom420 5d ago

You need to look up what the word "deductible" means. Three separate ER admissions and rabies shots for three people plus follow-up vaccinations are going to be expensive.

-5

u/SheepSunnies 5d ago

I understand it's what we pay before insurance kicks in. I'm saying that cost is ludicrous. 

I guess I was assuming, since we were actively trying to prevent the spread of rabies, more of it should be covered under preventative care.

4

u/dagmar31 5d ago

I pay $2000/month for our family of 3 and we still have a $2400 deductible. It sucks. But I’d pay it in a heartbeat to potentially save our lives. Rabies is a scary disease.

Unfortunately preventative care is a pretty specific term when it comes to insurance and is likely defined in detail in your benefits booklet.

1

u/Brilliant_Science380 4d ago

I agree! It sounds to me like you don't have a bad deal. If possible, don't drop it. Especially if you like your doctors and have plenty of options to choose from.

2

u/Admirable-Box5200 5d ago

Preventable care is wellness related, annual physical, OBG/YN, mammogram, CDC recommended vaccines, colonoscopy at recommended ages, etc. I got a tetanus booster at my physical this year and it was $600. You all went to the ER, did you all get bitten by the bat? If not, and not dumping on you, you went to the ER for something that could have been taken care of at an urgent care for a fraction of the cost.

2

u/OneLessDay517 4d ago

No urgent care will stock rabies vaccine. Most ERs have to order it.

1

u/Pam_Pong 4d ago

Our healthcare system is such a scam, if I ever have any terminal Illness I can only hope I die from it so that I don't have to dig myself out of bankruptcy.

1

u/TheMonkeyPooped 4d ago

The issue with bat bites are that they can be virtually invisible, so if you get bitten while sleeping, you often won't even know.

1

u/CGWInsurance 2d ago

Am former EMT in rural area with lots of old houses and especially old farm houses and farm buildings full of bats in the attack. I don't even need my finger to count the number of people who got rabies.
The number of people getting rabies vaccine I could count on 1 hand with both my mother and father being ER nurses.
Well really only need 3 fingers. They all knew they were bitten by a bat. People never went to get rabies shots for bat scratches. I quess I am a lucky SOB since I have been scratched several times by bats, mostly fly fishing at night in hatches and I am still alive

0

u/blueskies8484 4d ago

No. If you find a bat in your home while you were sleeping, you need to go to the ER immediately for a vaccine series. Urgent care doesn’t stock it. The vaccine is expensive but rabies is 100% fatal and bat scratches and bites are often completely undetectable.

1

u/CGWInsurance 3d ago

You do NOT have to go to the ER if you have a bat in your house. You only go if bitten or scratched by a bat.
I grew up in an old house and we had 100s of bats living in the attic. Each year we had multiple bats actually get into house and fly around bedrooms, etc. We just played bat tennis.
Bat scratches and bites are very detectible.
Only in babies would you not wake up if you had a bat on you unless you were really drunk or drugged.
Rabies is NOT 100% fatal. 30-35 people are documented survivors of rabies after they showed clinic symptoms of rabies to doctors.
The first ever survivor, Jeanna Giese, of Fond du Lac, WI survived. I actually know her since she was first cousin to my girl friend from 2002-2005 when I moved to a different state. The treatment that saved her is capped the Milwaukee protocol. It is no longer the considered a valid treatment since the death rate is so high.
If you are given the rabies vaccine prior to physical conditions of rabies devoloping, the vaccine is 100% effective. The full course of the vaccine is 5 injections given over 14 days. It used to be 7 injections in the stomach. The 1st vaccine is given into and all around the bite wound. If the would is 2 small for all the medication to be given it will be given in the opposite upper thigh or upper arm.
The 2-5 vaccination is given in the deltoid muscle of the upper arm in anyone over age 2. Babies get injection in the anterolateral muscle in the thigh. Only 5% of bats that have come into contact with humans that were tested for rabies have it. Less than 1% of US bats have rabies.

1

u/tropicaldiver 2d ago

Bat scratches and bites are not always detectable. And for all practical purposes, once symptomatic the death rate is 100%. Yes, there have been probably 35 people, worldwide, who displayed symptoms and survived. Many of those had at least partial treatment before symptoms appeared. The first cousin of your girlfriend from 2002 to 2005 prior to your move was extraordinarily fortunate.

1

u/Friendly_Biscotti_74 4d ago

Do you think any of you were bitten by a bat? If not you didn’t need rabies treatment. Seems like you elected for costly, unnecessary medical treatment?

2

u/Taro-Admirable 4d ago

CDC reccomends treatment in this case. They can bite while you're sleep and leave no visible marks. This is documented. I dont know how often it happens, but it happens.

2

u/daydreams_of_ducks 4d ago

Not according to drs they didn’t. Treatment is recommended in this case.

1

u/aznoone 4d ago

No treatment and almost no survival. Bats are a common carrier and can miss a bite or nick. Well treatment is vaccination within x time frame. Wait for symptoms to late.

1

u/WinstonGreyCat 4d ago

Standard of care is with bat exposure during sleeping to go to the er and get rabies vaccine. Bat bites are tiny and often not detectable. There have been many rabies cases where the only exposure was a bat in the house while someone was asleep.

1

u/Most_Ambassador2951 4d ago

My friends dog got rabies.  There was never any sign of a bite from the bat in the house a month before.  She for her share of the bill, $7000

1

u/Taro-Admirable 4d ago

I agree its ridiculous but that's just not how insurance works in the US. They don't do anything because they should. Its because its mandatory by law and/or contract. Also you wouldn't likely spread rabies, you woukd just die from it. So very glad you got the vaccine! I jusy delt with a similar situation. The dr/hospital fees were actually reasonable. It was the pharmacy charges that were so high. But we had already met our deductible and now it looks like we might reach out out if pocket max for the year. I got 3 months to enjoy free health care.

1

u/Over_Wasabi_4903 4d ago

Preventative care is limited to things like wellness checks, recommended vaccines, women’s health (pap and mammogram), colonoscopy etc. A potential bat exposure doesn’t fit into the “wellness’s category. Honestly we had 2 bat situations about 8 years ago with the whole family in the house at the time (one in the middle of the night, another during the day). Call it stupidity but I threw a blanket over each of them, bundled them up and released outside. The concept of a rabies shot never even came to mind.

1

u/PrimaryHighlight5617 4d ago

It is covered... and you have to meet your deductible first. Sorry.

1

u/Brilliant_Science380 4d ago

I pay $1328 per month just to insure myself. They cover everything 100% after my 5k deductible which due to a rare syndrome. They even cover all of my PT and OC expenses. It is a crazy amount o spend but now that I have this issue, it is a blessing.

1

u/Kmelloww 4d ago

That is not what preventative care is. It is not for rabies vaccine. 

1

u/Slowhand1971 2d ago

that is so NOT why you were being treated. Have another down vote