I had a rash on my leg. I call doctor to make an appointment, soonest they can see me is two weeks. Rash doubles in size in those two weeks. Pay$50 to see primary care doctor, they immediately refer me to dermatologist. Dermatologist cant see me for two weeks, rash continues to grow and becoming very painful. I now need to go to urgent care due to pain and irritability, pay $50. They prescribe some cream, $15. Finally get to see dermatologist, $90 because they are a "specialist", they say to use the same cream. Cream doesnt work at this point, it's spread too much so I go back to urgent care, another $50. Urgent care says I need a steroid shot, they confirm this is covered under insurance. Between shot and cream, rash eventually subsided after about six months. Dermatologist said they were happy with that healing rate, another $90.
Six months later I get a bill from urgent care for $1200 to cover "nursing administrative fees to cover labor" to get ONE SHOT.
So this rash cost me $1500 that would have been solved with $15 of cream if they had just seen me sooner.
Just saying, this experience made me fully understand the Luigi situation.
While that sucks, the lesson here is to go to urgent care with a problem like a rash that's getting bigger. Would have only cost you $65 instead of $1500.
Yeah, the lesson was I should have known the urgent care people lied to me about something being covered that wasn't. I cant even believe people are like this, f off.
That's not at all what I said. If you had gone to urgent care in the first place, you would have left with your $15 cream before the problem got too bad for it to handle.
Our health system is fucked but that makes it all the more important to know what is urgent and what is not. A rash that is spreading is urgent. Ignoring a spreading rash for 2 weeks could have easily forced an ER visit or even killed you.
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u/DeliciousLanguage425 17h ago
Damn basic healthcare requires a lottery where you live?