R.M. Dunbar: Patient outraged over Memorial ER charges for a finger cut
Don’t cut your finger while chopping vegetables and go to Memorial Medical Center. Health-care costs are out of control and then passed to the insurance agencies then to us.
No stitches, just a little glue and quarter-inch and saline solution to the wound that’s it not even a band aid. Tip of finger not even to the fingernail. Total cost $2,200. Here is the breakdown of how we and the insurance companies are getting ripped off, which translates to higher premiums for all of us.
Emergency room charge: $560
Saline solution and Dermabond glue: $637
Tetanus shot: $313
ER physician charge: $302
Physician treatment charge: $361
Charge for going at 7 a.m.: $45
We have better and less expensive choices than Memorial (Kaiser and Doctors Medical Center). Charging $637 for saline solution and Dermabond glue and another $663 for the physician to apply the glue!
R.M. Dunbar, Modesto
This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 11:35 AM with the headline "R.M. Dunbar: Patient outraged over Memorial ER charges for a finger cut."