Insurance in an Emergency

I fell on the concrete steps when I was walking to my front door. I was carrying a large box and couldn’t see that well but the biggest culprit was my dog. He is always in a hurry to get in the house when we get home. So he ran in front of me and I think he contributed to my fall. It felt like slow motion when my head came crashing down on the concrete.

Fortunately, my husband was with me and he rushed me to the hospital. There was blood everywhere. He had rushed to get a towel that I could hold on my head. The concrete was filled with blood and there was blood all over the dog because he was right underneath me. I was screaming in pain.

We got to the emergency room and they checked me in right away since it was obviously an emergency. They asked me for insurance information and my husband said he would give them all of the information. When I saw the doctor he asked me about my pain level. I said, “10 out of 10.”

The doctor cleaned up the wound. I waited in the hallway to get stitches and have an X-ray. But I kept bleeding and I held the towel to my head. I was in severe pain. Sure enough, a woman came around with her computer on wheels. She needed all of my insurance information. I asked her if my husband had already given it to the hospital. She said no, but later I found out that wasn’t true. I had to go through a list with her and then she asked me for a copayment. All while I was bleeding and in severe pain. The nurses had been too busy to give me anything for pain.

I wonder why the experience at the emergency room has to be so impersonal and rude. If you are dripping with blood and hunched over, they will find a way to get your insurance. If you die, they are probably mad that they didn’t get the information out of you sooner.

According to healthcare.gov, in a true emergency, you can go straight to the hospital. Insurers can’t require you to get prior approval before getting emergency room services from a provider or hospital outside your plan’s network.

OK, so they at least let me see the doctor. But my husband was required to immediately give the front desk our insurance information while they took me back.
Are they just disorganized so again the woman with the computer on wheels has to come by while I’m hunched over in severe pain and bleeding? Why are workers at hospitals like robots? I guess it’s procedure. But hey, she got paid and I had to reach into my purse to give her my co-payment as well. Such is the coldness of bureaucracy.