A young woman from New York expressed her disbelief on Twitter after learning that her younger sister had been penalized for crying during a hospital visit.
We’ve all heard that the things you can be paid for during a hospital visit, particularly in an emergency, are out of your control. Camille Johnson’s story is one of several egregiously obvious examples. As you can expect, viewers were outraged to see someone crying out of anger about a continuing medical problem being likened to something that necessitated medical attention rather than just plain human sympathy.
Camille revealed that the incident occurred when her younger sister sought medical help for a persistent problem.
“My little sister has been really struggling with a health condition lately and finally got to see a doctor. They charged her $40 for crying,” she wrote.
What’s more disturbing is that when Camille published her sister’s tale, a slew of similar stories started to appear in the replies on Twitter.
From Twitter:
Wow, they’re REALLY jackin’ up the cost of crying. This sounded very familiar, so I searched my timeline and… bam! *less than a year ago*.https://t.co/qp6DbK3BeD
— Mirel (@MirelLeLian) May 17, 2022
“She has a rare disease so she’s been really struggling to find care. She got emotional because she feels frustrated and helpless,” Camille continued.
“One tear in and they charged her $40 without addressing why she is crying, trying to help, doing any evaluation, any prescription, nothing.”
For many folks, a $40 fee isn’t worth fighting about. Camille, on the other hand, offered some extra insight that might make you reconsider.
“They charged her more for crying than they did for a vision assessment test,” she wrote.
“They charged her more for crying than for a hemoglobin test. They charged her more for crying than for a health risk assessment. They charged her more for crying than for a capilary blood draw.”
A medical billing coder chimed in to the conversation offering some more jaw-dropping facts.
“As a person getting a Medical Billing and Coding certificate, I can say sadly… yes there is. There is a code for literally anything out of the ordinary,” she wrote.
“These include ‘bumping into another person’ (W51.XXXA), a hickey (S10.87XA), and complaining about in-laws (Z63.1).”
This is why it’s critical to request itemized bills from medical professionals, according to some. You should always know exactly what you’re paying for so that you can object if necessary.