Woman billed after not seeing doctor

The American health care system means failure. Failure in every way.

It means broken emergency rooms, nonexistent doctors, and bogus billing.

One night recently at a Dallas hospital, a woman ambled into the ER with a broken leg. The leg had already been x-rayed at a chiropractic school she attended, and the school referred her to the hospital. After signing in, she propped her leg up on a chair and waited.

Minutes turned into hours. She ended up waiting all night. After 19 hours without a visit from a physician, she gave up. She hopped right back out the door.

That's the American health care system for you. If the ER was that swamped, you have to consider that much of the area (like other American communities) has inadequate health care. Hospitals within a 50-mile radius are often ill-equipped themselves, forcing patients to commute to Dallas.

Two weeks after the ER visit that ended with no treatment came the real shocker: The woman was sent a bill from the hospital for $162.

Let's get this straight: A patient shows up with a known leg fracture, is not treated despite waiting 19 hours, and is billed $162 for nothing? What did the hospital do that could have possibly cost them $162? A nurse saw her for several minutes for assessment, but that was it. (That assessment didn't happen until 3 hours after the patient arrived.)

If a broken leg goes too long without treatment, there's a greater risk of a less successful recovery. So the hospital is actually lucky if it doesn't get sued.

The same hospital is already under fire because last month a man died after waiting 19 hours in the ER. And while the woman with the broken leg was waiting, a victim of a motorcycle crash gave up and left the ER after he had been forced to wait for hours.

The leg fracture patient was forced to treat her leg herself, even though she is not a doctor. (That's what I had to do when I broke my hand at work.)

And she damn sure ain't paying the hospital bill. I wouldn't either.

Is the hospital going to sue her for $162 when it didn't even treat her? Judge Judy would laugh that case right out of court.

This story underscores just how broken the U.S. health system is. And it gets worse each year.

(Source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/102108dnmetparklandbills.3ebcd5e.html)