Seattle Man Gets $1.1 Million Coronavirus Hospital Bill: Report

Michael Flor, a Seattle resident, stunned medical doctors and members of the family when he recovered from a life-threatening coronavirus an infection this spring.

Then he were given his personal wonder ― a health facility invoice for $1,122,501.04.

Flor, 70, shared the 181-page record with The Seattle Times, which famous that he has insurance coverage and Medicare protection and so might handiest need to pay a slightly small quantity of the whopping overall. 

He won’t need to pay anything else in any respect because of steps taken by way of Congress to offer protection to Americans with non-public insurance coverage or no insurance coverage from being charged for in quest of trying out and remedy for COVID-19, the sickness led to by way of the virus. That was once the case for Slate creator David Lat, who wrote about being let off the hook for his $320,000 health facility invoice this week.

Yet Flor’s invoice, technically an “explanation of benefits,” is a stark instance of the sky-high charge of well being care within the U.S. that has come underneath greater grievance all over the coronavirus pandemic. America spends extra consistent with particular person on well being care than every other high-income nation, due partly to its reliance on for-profit firms. 

Flor was once hospitalized at Swedish Medical Center close to Seattle for 62 days, consistent with The Seattle Times. His spouse advised the hole that, at one level, he awoke and stated, “You gotta get me out of here. We can’t afford this.”

The invoice describes just about three,000 itemized fees. From the Times: 

Just the rate for his room within the extensive care unit was once billed at $nine,736 consistent with day. Due to the contagious nature of the virus, the room was once sealed and may handiest be entered by way of scientific staff dressed in plastic fits and headgear. For 42 days he was once on this isolation chamber, for a complete charged charge of $408,912.

He additionally was once on a mechanical ventilator for 29 days, with the usage of the system billed at $2,835 consistent with day, for a complete of $82,215. About 1 / 4 of the invoice is drug prices.

The record of fees not directly tells the tale of Flor’s struggle. For the 2 days when his middle, kidneys and lungs have been all failing and he was once nearest dying, the invoice runs for 20 pages and totals just about $100,000 as medical doctors “were throwing everything at me they could think of,” Flor says.

The congressional measure to protect other folks from health facility expenses has been known as an experiment in common well being take care of the ones with one particular sickness. 

The country’s biggest insurance coverage firms, together with UnitedHealthcare, Aetna, Anthem and Blue Cross Blue Shield, waived “cost-sharing” with sufferers affected by COVID-19 previous this yr. Patients might nonetheless face health facility expenses, alternatively, in the event that they depend on medical health insurance thru their jobs, for the reason that insurance coverage firms permit employers to opt-out of the cost-sharing waiver.

Flor turned into unwell initially of March, when he evolved a foul cough across the time the coronavirus was once simply starting to take off and disrupt existence within the U.S.

He went to the health facility upon the urging of his spouse, Elisa Del Rosario. Over the process the following a number of weeks, his lungs, middle and kidneys suffered injury and started shutting down. Doctors later advised him they applied each remedy they might bring to mind for him ― from diet C to hydroxychloroquine to remdesivir ― and have been surprised that he survived. 

At one level, health facility staffers helped his circle of relatives say goodbyes over the telephone, as the ability was once no longer permitting any outdoor guests. 

Del Rosario advised The Seattle Times that she knew the health facility would name when Flor died, so she fell asleep subsequent to her telephone.

Flor left the health facility in a Superman T-shirt, surrounded by way of applause from medical doctors and nurses.