A Korean family receives an hospitalization bill of US $ 18,000 after their son received a preparation



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A Korean couple received a hospital bill worth US $ 18,836 (AU $ 25,358) for taking their son to hospital in the United States. two years. Jang Yeo Im said that the sum was too high for a visit to the hospital without incident.

The family was in San Francisco, California, in 2016 when Jang's son, Park Joeng Whan, hit his head after falling off their hotel bed. The baby had no visible injury but he could not stop crying, and Jang and her husband called an ambulance to take their son to the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

At the hospital, Jang said that Joeng Whan was not seriously injured by the fall, although he had some bruises on his face. They had her nap in her mother's arm and drink infant formula before sending her home with her parents after three hours and 22 minutes. The family then continued their holidays in the United States.

Two years later, however, they received the bill for their visit to the hospital. The bill showed that they owe $ 18,836 US to the hospital for the visit. Most of the amount was US $ 15,666 (AU $ 21,090), which the bill said for "trauma activation" or "trauma response fee".

The trauma activation fee is the amount requested by the hospital's trauma center. The activation of a group of health professionals to deal with a patient is afraid of being in a life-threatening situation. How much does this vary from one hospital to the other. According to Medliminal (via Kaiser Health News), it can range from US $ 1,112 (US $ 1,497) in a Missouri hospital to US $ 50,659 (US $ 68,200) in a California hospital

. United States, but this would only cover US $ 5,000 (AU $ 6,700) of the invoice. "It's a huge amount of money for my family," she told KHN. "If my baby gets special treatment, OK, that would be fine, but he did not do it, so why should I pay the bill, they did not do anything for my son." [19659002] The spokesman for Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Brent Andrew, defended the trauma expense response of more than US $ 15,000, even though the baby did not need drastic services very large, very densely populated area, we are facing so much trauma in this city – car accidents, mass shootings, multiple vehicle collisions, "he said." It is expensive to prepare for this. "

Jang has a patient advocate working on her behalf to try to negotiate the bill with SFGH and she still hopes to visit the country in the next few years, even though her experience with the infamous US health care system was less than pleasant.

"J & Like the US There is a lot to see when traveling, "he told the newspaper. "But the American health care system was very bad."

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