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fbtcu1998 t1_itgluyg wrote

Reply to comment by mtarascio in Man fatally shot after California high school football game by unknown_name

I doubt no insurance was a reason. If it was, he wouldn't have even gone to the hospital at all. Avoiding the cops is possible, but I doubt it was because he was afraid they'd shoot him. He could have been involved or had warrants or something like that. Or just prioritized his health first and didn't want to play 20 questions with the cops before getting medical help. My guess is he or someone else thought he'd get medical care quicker by driving him to the hospital rather than waiting on an ambulance. Not that uncommon for people to drive to the hospital vs waiting on an ambulance if time is of the essence.

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jrhoffa t1_ith9zyf wrote

The ambulance ride can easily be the most expensive part of an ER visit.

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fbtcu1998 t1_iti0b0y wrote

Doubtful in this case. The average ambulance cost in CA is around $600. Granted his could be more given the severity of the injuries. But the average cost for an ER visit in CA is nearly $3k. Considering this was a life threating gunshot wound he'd need x-rays, surgery, blood, etc. He could easily be $10k+ for the hospital bill. I just can't see any way his ambulance ride would be more than the ER.

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jrhoffa t1_iti1whq wrote

Last ambulance bills I saw in CA were around $2k a pop.

Are you using the mean or median average? Source?

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fbtcu1998 t1_iti2mm3 wrote

https://www.the-caa.org/assets/docs/Calif-EMS-Safety-Net.pdf

and

https://www.talktomira.com/post/how-much-does-an-er-visit-cost

Like I said the ambulance part could easily be more considering his injuries, but I can't see how it would be the most expensive part of the entire thing.

Edit: Oh that is just the private ones, 911 probably would go thru a municipality which could be more than the average, but I still don't think it would 10k plus like the ER visit could.

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jrhoffa t1_iti6h3o wrote

Still curious what the median costs are, since the mean is early skewed by large outliers.

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fbtcu1998 t1_iti8mv8 wrote

I won't pretend to be able to unravel all the layers of that stinky onion. There are costs, reimbursements, different costs based on insurance or not, private vs public, subsidized vs not, etc. A man's gotta know his limits, and untangling medical costs is where I tap out.

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jrhoffa t1_iti9457 wrote

Yeah, it's a quagmire on purpose. This is a conversation that should never have come to pass.

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vermiliondragon t1_itila9k wrote

I have two pending ambulance bills in California. One is $2600, the other is $11,500 (I think that covers 2 rides). They considered out of network but insurance will still limit what they can collect and, frankly, I just wouldn't pay them if they didn't. They're saying I should expect to pay $250 for one and $650 for the other but I don't have final bills yet.

$10k is a massive underestimate for a surgery and a couple days in the hospital. The per day hospital stay alone is likely $10k. My husband's bypass surgery alone was $115k and that did not include individual surgeons, lab work, anesthesiologists. The anesthesiology bill is pending at $6550 (like the ambulances, considered out of network but assume insurance will reduce it).

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