Monday, December 14, 2015

The Cost of Dying

Some of you may know that my dear mother passed away last July.  I wrote about it here - RIP Mom. I received a string of sympathetic comments, many from readers that I've never heard from before, for which I'm very appreciative.

Last Saturday I got an invoice from ProMedica, listing the following items:

Cardiology $1,875.00
Emergency Room $6,068.00
IV Administration $1,009.00
Pharmacy $126.00
Procedure $2,847.00
Radiology $280.00
Respiratory $2,691.00
Treatment Room $2,066.00
Total $16,962.00

Seventeen large to cash in your chips.

Somehow, there's something inherently wrong with a system that charges you seventeen grand and fails to keep you alive.

I, by the way, am doing okay.  Not great, not bad.  Just okay.  Some days are easier than others, and the estate is difficult to pack up and sell.

2 comments:

CWMartin said...

Hospitals are a large chunk of what's wrong in this country. I'm not a fan of Socialist, er, socialized medicine, but there are some things you need to just WRITE OFF.

And, glad you are okay. I was much younger when I had to do this with my dad. It was an unending cycle of getting a form from SSI, submit it, get another form requesting the same info. Almost five months later, I wrote the President.(Reagan) In days, they sent me one MORE form- but with a black band at the top, instead of the greens and purples it kept going to and fro between. I sent it in. IT WAS DONE. If I knew it was that easy, I'd have used a sharpie about 20 envelopes before...

Old NFO said...

THoughts and prayers... It's never easy trying to 'pick up the pieces'...