Tyler Love

I live in Brooklyn, NY with Anna and Hubble+Ollie. I perform music with French Miami, engineer software for Tumblr and co-created Views.fm.

You can ask me something.

• My Experience with Health Care

  On Wednesday around 6:00AM I went to see a doctor. I’d had a bad fever and a very sore throat for 3 days and hadn’t slept. The glands in my neck were so swollen they were sore to the touch. I figured I had strep-throat or bronchitus. Rather than waiting 3-4 hours for the walk-in clinics to open, decided to just pay a little bit of a premium and go to the ER, I’ve done this in the past and the bill was about $170 including some meds.

  After being seen by a doctor I was simply diagnosed with the Flu. Even then, he was concerned about the swelling in my glands. My throat wasn’t red, or even scrathy but my lymph-nodes were so swollen it felt like they were about to explode. He strongly recommended I have X-rays taken, but I declined.

  I’m not sure on the state of my COBRA coverage, and I was otherwise uninsured. I assumed an X-ray would be at least $1k or lilkely more. After explaining this to the doctor, I was assured over and over that the X-rays were only going to cost “fifty to one-hundred dollars.” Anna was there to witness this. I was also given a long speech that was nothing short of belittling.

  After a shot in my ass of pain meds that nearly knocked me out, 3 X-rays, and another 30 minutes of waiting I was cleared. Nothing but the Flu. Before leaving I talked to a financial counselor. Turns out the doctor had lied to me in order to talk me into the X-rays. Turns out X-rays are $2,000-3,000.

  In any other case, this is considered fraud (Bait and switch). I was blatantly lied to. A nurse, patient (me), Anna, and a financial counseler are all witnesses to this. I have a few weeks before my bill comes, and I’d like to know my rights before I start contesting it.

  Do I have any legal rights? Does the doctor have any liabiltiy for his words? Anybody know anything?

  23 Jul 2009 / 1 note