Hospital bill stuns slain student's parents

[shanti]

On Saturday, 10 days after Scott Hawkins was beaten to death inside his dormitory at California State University, Sacramento, his parents got a letter in the mail.

It contained a bill from the UC Davis Medical Center for $29,186.50 along with a form letter addressed "Dear Patient" that implied they were indigent and stated that the hospital no longer could provide them services....

*snip*

http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/story/2301084.html



i don't know what's worse, getting a letter like this after your child has been murdered, or the cost of 5 minutes of "care". i guess it's all relative...

[barbtries]

1. the hospital never should have done that

the state of CA has a fund for crime victims. i wish i was there to make some noise for this family.

[Go2Peace]

31. Our society masks a severe underlying cruelty

[Barack_America]

2. Thoroughly disgusting. It's time to think about breaking up some of these hospital systems too.

Along with the banks.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. I agree - we're barely reading ANY criticism of the providers, doctors and hospitals

All of our wrath at DU seems directed at the insurance companies. They're the main problem, but what about exhorbitant charges being levied by the actual providers? It seems that doctors are being treated like untouchable holy figures who have a divine right to be richissimo. The movie Sicko featured a British doctor in their national healthcare system who was content to live comfortably, making $100,000 a year, with a new car and a $1 million home, not five cars and a $3 million home. Not all doctors are rich, but many are merely businessmen in a white smock.

[Barack_America]

4. The profits don't go to doctors, they go to hospital CEO's.

Who make 2 to 10 times what doctors make, and have no exorbitant medical school loans to pay off.

http://industry.bnet.com/healthcare/1000429/hospital-ce... /

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. I've dealt with a lot of crooked doctors

Some of them are whores and, as I said, businessmen in a white smock. I knew quite a few of this ilk as an attorney handling work comp and personal injury cases. Out and out whores who would do anything for a buck. While I agree that the hospital administrators are ones we should scrutinize, I can't help but shake my head at the way doctors are given a free pass here and are considered saintly figures who just normally are considered part of the elite class worthy of grabbing all the money they can.

[Go2Peace]

32. The profession of the Physician has also been compromised by greed

The ethic behind becoming a DR. has changed. It really used to be that one became a DR. to help others, with little expectation to be well off. Many Dr's still have a similar ethic, but as many or more see the profession now as a way to get rich.

And don't try to tell me that Dr's aren't well off. I have friends who are Dr's, and even ordinary family practitioners are doing very well.

[wroberts189]

5. These days instead of take an aspirin and call me in the morning...

Take these anti-depressants and see me in three months. We do not know how they really work or if your brain chemistry is actually unbalanced.. take them anyway.

[old mark]

6. Doctors ARE Holy beings - just ask them.......nt

[Barack_America]

9. Not holy, just not as bad as MBAs.

Most people still go into medicine with a desire to help people, unfortunately for a variety of reasons that desire often wanes.

I'd say that HMOs and the profiteering of medicine has a lot to do with that.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. That is a University Hospital, a teaching hospital

so that is where future docs (and nurses I suspect) learn what is kosher.

Amazing

[Xithras]

28. And it's owned by California taxpayers to boot.

I guess the state really IS broke.

[juno jones]

7. FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU.........

My son has Asberger's. That story pierced me to the soul and for the parents to get A BILL for the death of their son in such a horrible crime is a fucking travesty.

^^^This is why I don't trust the medical establishment.

[Initech]

10. I'm sick of this shit. There are some really cruel-ass motherfuckers on this planet.

[TheMadMonk]

11. Not 5 minutes of care. I believe that the kids was DOA if not dead at the scene.

Five minutes of futile (but heroic looking) activity in the ER, to justify an equally heroic bill.

"But the billing indicates that his son lived longer than initially thought, Hawkins said. In addition to the emergency room services, the bill seeks payment for a "patient monitor," trauma rescue services, intubation and cardiopulmonary resuscitation."

[timtom]

12. When I was a student at Berkeley in 1968,

our on-campus hospitalization was free if I recall correctly.

[mulsh]

18. Thanks to Ronnie and his follower those days are long gone.

n/t

[shanti]

19. that's the thing

the poor guy HAD kaiser medical coverage, and should never have gotten the bill!

[Hepburn]

34. I went to the UC in the 1960s and I also recall student health being free. n/t

[Ms. Toad]

13. He was 23. No longer his parents' legal responsibility

Just return the bill marked deceased.

[underseasurveyor]

17. Excellent point

I'd add a hearty Eat it and a FU to it too.

Those poor people lost their son in a horrible manner and for the hospital to even DREAM of sending them a bill is despicable.

[Canuckistanian]

22. Good point

Unless they were still the legal guardians of their son, they have every right to tell the hospital administration to go "F" themselves.

Tell them they can make a claim on their son's estate.

[Blue_Tires]

14. amazing...k+r

[DearAbby]

15. The callousness of this system....

[KamaAina]

16. UC Davis Medical Center. Today's Worst. People. In The World!

[Jennicut]

20. Disgusting. Utterly reprehensible. Did no one look that he was dead?!

[intheflow]

21. I think CSU Sacramento shoudl pay the bill.

I think it's a reasonable expectation that dorms should be safe, that you/your child won't be murdered in on-campus, university-run housing.

[alp227]

23. this is a case for you congress...

PASS THE DAMN PUBLIC OPTION ALREADY!

[SoCalDem]

24. When my friend's son died from a car accident, the hospital billed her

so did the ambulance company, and so did the labs people & doctors. he was over 21 when he died, but her address was the one listed, so they kept billing her..one letter even went so far as to say they "knew she would want to settle his affairs"..

she donated his organs & helped 6 people lead a better life, and while mourning him, she had to deal with these assholes who insisted that she "should" pay.

Technically he was DOA..(never regained consciousness), but they kept him on life supports, for 9 days, while she struggled with the decision to donate his organs. At any time, they could have probably gotten her to "pull the plug"..she confided in me on day one that "Jeff looked dead", and maybe she should let him go..but the hospital was the one that pressured her every day, to "wait & see", until on day 9 they admitted that he was brain dead from day one, and maybe she was "ready" to consider donation...and then they billed her for all the costs.

Jeff had no insurance, so he was treated at the County hospital, but the costs were astronomical.

[Ms. Toad]

26. That is, unfortunately, a favorite trick

Even though they know darn well that his parents are not legally obligated to pay they play the "moral" card - you would want to settle his debts, etc.

Hope your friend turned them over to the estate (which for a 21 year old was likely was not too large - and likely why they were chasing relatives in the first place).

[ThatsMyBarack]

27. At least the hospital....

Hasn't sent the grieving parents to jail for not being able to pay an inexcusably exorbitant bill!

[raccoon]

33. I could see some people being totally OK with that. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

29. Well that is 'Uniquely'' American I guess.

Aren't we 'blessed'?

[flyarm]

30. My son went to school there..it makes me sick..first he started at Virginia Tech..

where there was the horrible murders..now at Sac State..I am glad my son is out of college now..My son graduated from Sac State..and it was a nice school..

I don't know ho wany parent could endure what they have to endure.

And then this bill on top of it ..there is evil all around us!