Deze vraag is in het engels omdat ik ze ook naar fora in de VS heb verstuurd (maar daar krijg ik geen reactie). Moest het nodig zijn, zal ik een vertaalde versie posten.
State: New York
Last Sunday (April 29th), when I was on vacation in New York City, I got up in the morning with a serious bladder infection. I have a history of recurring bladder infections, but since I had not had one for over six months, I had no medication with me on the trip. I went to the nearest pharmacy and asked them what I should do. As they could offer me no treatment without a prescription from a doctor and I am not a US Citizen, they advised me to go to St Vincent's Emergency Room (as it was the closest hospital). I was afraid that this would be very expensive, but the pharmacist told me that he had no clue what it would cost (not even if it would be around fifty or more around five hundred dollars).
So I tried to fight the pain because I was too worried about the costs of getting treated. But by Sunday evening, I was feeling terrible and had blood in my urine. I decided to go to ER to ask them if I could please get a relief pill, and I would ask them, being a tourist, to just charge me for the pill (something that doctors in Europe would definitely do when they see someone dying with pain - doctors always get free samples of medication anyway and to cure bladder infection it takes just one pill).
But alas... Arriving at St Vincent's I immediately was very confused by the way I was treated by the receptionists (the "triage" staff). They ignored me (even though there was just me and one other patient), and even though they could clearly see that I was from abroad and having no clue what to do, did not offer any information. Then, finally, they asked me to step into their office, asked me my name and what I had, took my blood pressure and slapped on a wrist band and sent me to the "fast track" where I received a bunch of paperwork to fill out, again, without any information. At this point, I asked the person behind the desk: "But wait, what is this going to cost me?" as I saw she had put me down as "self-paying" (without consulting me, just because she knew I was a tourist and would not have US insurance). She replied "Five hundred dollars" as if it were nothing (again, I'm a 24-year old student from Europe where going to a doctor costs 20 dollars!).
Of course, I totally panicked. I replied to her that I had no idea it would be so expensive, that no-one had informed me of it, that I could not afford this and that I would have to retreat from treatment in this case. The other ER patient standing next to me clearly took a pity and told me to just go to a pharmacy and take cranberry pills and drink acidic drinks, and that this would even be better treatment than antibiotics. So I told the fast-track receptionist that I would do that then, as I could really not afford to pay 500 dollars for one simple pill against bladder infection. At this point she said, "Wait, talk to her", pointing at another person behind the desk. I thought that maybe, they were going to suggest a cheaper solution.
But no. Apparently, this person was the local "bull dog", whose job is to scare of patients, intimidate them and threaten them, so that they would pay (I later found out that St Vincent's is facing bankruptcy and is in desperate need for money - I sincerely hope that this was not hospital policy). She started raving at me, that I had no choice, I had to take the treatment, and that by going to triage, I had already consented (!) in paying 500 dollars. I said "But nobody said anything about money, paying, or consenting to anything, they just slapped a wristband on me and referred me here". Here response "It doesn't matter if you want the treatment or not, you HAVE to pay the 500 dollars, the bill is already heading your way as we speak, you WILL pay for it, whether you want to or not, even if you have no money, okay, then they'll just take 5 dollars from you every month for the rest of your life if they have to". Now I don't know what Americans make of this, but I call this serious intimidation and violation of patient rights, and a failure to inform someone on hospital policies when they clearly have no clue. In other words, she was trying to trick me into paying them! I got really upset and replied "How can you charge me when I haven't shown you any ID, I haven't signed anything or filled out ANY paperwork, I am refusing treatment AND I haven?t even told you from which country I am?" And she was like "Don't worry, we'll track you down, we've done it before".
I was DISGUSTED and left. I am now back home, and feeling much better after taking just one pill (even though the flight back was hell). I am left with one question: Can they do this? Can they track me down using air traffic, hotel billing... information? When I haven't filled out any forms, signed anything, shown my passport?
Please clarify this for me, I'm baffled...