He Returned to the US for His Daughter’s Wedding. He Left With a $42,000 Hospital Bill.

Final June, Jay Consolation flew to the US from his dwelling in Switzerland to attend his solely daughter’s wedding ceremony. However the week earlier than the ceremony — on a Friday night — Consolation mentioned he discovered himself in “excruciating ache.”

“I attempted to intestine it out for 3 hours due to the insurance coverage scenario,” mentioned Consolation, a retired instructor and American citizen who has Swiss insurance coverage.

When the ache turned insufferable, Consolation known as his brother, who drove him and his spouse, Nazuna, a couple of miles to the closest emergency division, on the College of Pittsburgh Medical Heart’s hospital in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Each bump of the drive was “like somebody taking one thing and simply jabbing it into my stomach,” he mentioned.

On the hospital, Nazuna Konishi Consolation handed over her husband’s Swiss insurance coverage card, which confirmed protection by Groupe Mutuel. Jay recalled the employees making copies of his insurance coverage card after which treating his acute appendicitis. Docs carried out emergency surgical procedure to take away the infected appendix.

Diagnostic exams confirmed he had a uncommon most cancers, which medical doctors in Switzerland later eliminated with one other surgical procedure after he returned dwelling. “It was a miracle,” Consolation mentioned, including that the most cancers was fully eliminated.

After his appendectomy, Consolation recalled vomiting after which ready in a restoration room. In all, he spent about 14 hours at UPMC Williamsport earlier than being launched. He attended his daughter’s wedding ceremony and, finally, traveled again to Switzerland.

Then the invoice got here.

The Affected person: Leslie “Jay” Consolation, 66, a retired educator who labored in Japan and Switzerland. Consolation pays a month-to-month charge and deductible for Switzerland’s necessary fundamental medical insurance, which he has with the Swiss-based Groupe Mutuel. His advantages — and the costs for procedures — are outlined by the Swiss authorities.

Medical Service: Emergency laparoscopic appendectomy and diagnostic exams, which confirmed Consolation had a uncommon subtype of most cancers known as goblet cell adenocarcinoma.

Service Supplier: College of Pittsburgh Medical Heart Williamsport, which is about 3½ hours northeast of Pittsburgh. The UPMC well being system is likely one of the state’s largest employers, with 40 hospitals.

Complete Invoice: $42,156.50, masking emergency surgical procedure, scans, laboratory testing, and three hours in a restoration room. His insurer has mentioned it would pay him about $8,184 (7,260.40 in Swiss francs), which is double the process’s value in Switzerland. This left him to cowl the remaining roughly $34,000.

What Provides: Though Consolation has well being protection, his Swiss insurance coverage had no contract with the U.S. hospital the place he underwent emergency surgical procedure — or with every other supplier exterior Switzerland.

With what is taken into account a superb well being system, Switzerland has the very best costs for medical care in Europe. As within the U.S., the nation depends on personal insurers and hospitals. However the price of care in Switzerland is considerably decrease than what’s charged within the U.S., so the reimbursement his insurer provided is a fraction of what Consolation owes the U.S. hospital.

“I’m attempting to do the fitting factor and say I’m prepared to pay my accountability,” he mentioned.

Groupe Mutuel doesn’t have agreements with international suppliers, resembling UPMC, and doesn’t take care of them straight, mentioned Lisa Flückiger, a spokesperson for Groupe Mutuel. The insurer initially agreed to reimburse Consolation what would have been paid in Switzerland for a similar remedy in a public hospital after which double that as a result of it was an emergency in another country — a complete of 4,838 in Swiss francs, or about $5,460.

Whereas useful, Consolation mentioned, that quantity wouldn’t repay the $42,156.50 he owes UPMC.

UPMC has expanded its attain all through Pennsylvania and is now the biggest supplier of care in lots of elements of the state. In 2016, it bought a smaller well being system and now runs two main hospitals, UPMC Williamsport and UPMC Williamsport Divine Windfall Campus.

Research present that in areas the place hospital consolidation is excessive, costs go up. As a result of there’s much less competitors, hospitals have extra energy to cost what they need when sufferers have personal insurance coverage or are paying out-of-pocket.

Within the U.S., the quantities charged for medical care are “everywhere in the map,” mentioned Johnathan Clarke, vice chairman of technique and enterprise growth at Penfield Care, a medical cost-containment firm in Canada. The corporate negotiates medical payments on behalf of people, together with worldwide guests to the U.S., however isn’t concerned in Consolation’s case.

Clarke mentioned he would anticipate an appendectomy to be priced between $6,500 and $18,800, primarily based on his evaluation of Medicare funds within the Pittsburgh space. Healthcare Bluebook — which evaluates insurers’ claims information to offer price estimates primarily based on what insurers have paid, fairly than what suppliers cost — says a good value for a laparoscopic appendectomy in Williamsport is about $14,554.

Consolation mentioned a “affordable value estimate” primarily based on his personal web analysis can be between $7,500 and $12,000.

Consolation’s care included an X-ray and an EKG, or electrocardiogram for his coronary heart, as a result of “there was no data referring to previous medical/surgical historical past for this affected person,” wrote Susan Manko, vice chairman of public relations at UPMC. The employees additionally performed pathology work that recognized most cancers.

However these further providers didn’t totally clarify the hole between price estimates and what the hospital charged. For example, UPMC charged $8,357 for Consolation’s three-hour keep within the restoration room.

Manko mentioned Consolation’s whole invoice aligns with UPMC’s customary expenses.

The price disparities spotlight the stark distinction in worldwide pricing. Price estimates final 12 months confirmed the common quantity paid for an appendectomy within the U.S. was “practically precisely double” that paid in Switzerland, mentioned Christopher Watney, chief government of the Worldwide Federation of Well being Plans, an trade affiliation whose members embrace well being insurers on six continents.

Well being care in Switzerland, although, is commonly costly in contrast with different European international locations, Watney mentioned. The Swiss pay double for an appendectomy in contrast with Germans, and greater than 3 times that of these in Spain, he mentioned. Throughout the globe, Watney mentioned, many international locations embrace an in a single day keep in the price of an uncomplicated appendectomy in distinction to Consolation’s expertise, which was billed as outpatient care.

Consolation, who has twin residency in Switzerland and Japan after practically three many years working overseas, mentioned he labored within the U.S. lengthy sufficient to qualify for Social Safety advantages and Medicare. He mentioned he had beforehand tried to realize Medicare protection at one level however nonetheless isn’t enrolled, after being transferred to a few places of work and “taking part in cellphone tag.”

Nonetheless, not like many sufferers coping with a five-figure medical invoice, Consolation mentioned he’s not involved about UPMC harming his monetary fame. The well being system doesn’t “appear to place dangerous marks towards folks’s credit score document — and I don’t have credit score in the US. I’ve been out for 30 years.”

Manko confirmed that, saying UPMC reviewed and up to date its assortment coverage final 12 months; it states the well being system won’t interact in “extraordinary assortment actions” resembling lawsuits, liens on houses, arrests, or reporting to credit score businesses.

She mentioned the well being system — which, as a nonprofit system, is tax-exempt — maintains a “sturdy monetary help program” for sufferers unable to pay. However “to our information” Consolation has not utilized for monetary help, Manko advised KFF Well being Information.

The Decision: Consolation mentioned he spent months ready for a invoice and eventually reached out to UPMC as a result of, if the invoice had arrived this 12 months, he would have needed to pay his insurance coverage deductible once more on high of the costs.

Consolation obtained a full UPMC invoice six months after his surgical procedure. Manko mentioned there was “confusion” on the time of Consolation’s ER registration. Consolation’s spouse offered the insurance coverage data, she mentioned, “however there was no documentation within the sufferers document for deal with, coverage quantity or coverage holder data.”

As soon as Consolation obtained his invoice, he realized it was a lot larger than his Swiss insurance coverage reimbursement and, pissed off, contacted KFF Well being Information.

Flückiger mentioned the unique fee quantity Consolation’s insurer calculated was by episode and didn’t embrace the scan or laboratory prices. After receiving questions from a KFF Well being Information reporter, Groupe Mutuel “realized that now we have not included the laboratory evaluation and the CT scan,” which aren’t routinely a part of an appendectomy, Flückiger wrote.

After KFF Well being Information offered an in depth abstract of the UPMC invoice, the insurer elevated the quantity it will pay Consolation. In all, the insurer mentioned, Consolation ought to obtain 7,260.40 in Swiss francs, or about $8,184.

Consolation nonetheless hopes to barter straight with UPMC to cut back what he owes.

“I don’t wish to attempt to stroll away, saying I don’t owe you something,” Consolation mentioned. “That’s not proper. We’re ethical folks, you realize. However when you’re going to attempt to gouge me and play the ability journey and suppose you’re going to attempt to get every little thing you’ll be able to out of me, I gained’t play that sport.”

The Takeaway: Although the Inexpensive Care Act was meant to offer insurance coverage to extra People and produce down the price of care, hospital payments stay terribly excessive and extremely variable.

For a nonemergency, Consolation might have tried to match costs at different hospitals. However most hospitals within the space the place he fell unwell are owned by UPMC. And an infected appendix can’t look ahead to comparability procuring.

Clarke, the cost-containment skilled, mentioned the “solely factor” Consolation might have performed otherwise was to buy a journey medical insurance coverage earlier than leaving Switzerland. Whereas costs for well being care in continental Europe are similar to Switzerland, the excessive price of care within the U.S. means Groupe Mutuel insurance coverage is “inadequate.”

That’s particularly essential for guests to the U.S. since, as Robin Ingle, CEO of journey insurance coverage firm Ingle Worldwide, mentioned: U.S. costs are “sort of loopy numbers.”

Invoice of the Month is a crowdsourced investigation by KFF Well being Information and NPR that dissects and explains medical payments. Do you may have an fascinating medical invoice you wish to share with us? Inform us about it!

KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is likely one of the core working packages at KFF—an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Be taught extra about KFF.

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