What Gives: The Deans were snagged by a host of major problems in American health care: very high billing, obscure pricing, high-deductible insurance plans and few options for care in rural areas. DeeAnn received care at Maury Regional Medical Center, a county-owned hospital in Columbia, Tennessee, about twice as far from her home as the Pulaski hospital. Service Providers: Jason received care at Southern Tennessee Regional Health System-Pulaski, part of the LifePoint Health hospital chain. BCBST paid a negotiated rate of $1,990.63 and the Deans owed $566.33. At a different ER, DeeAnn was charged for a Level 4 emergency and lab tests. The Deans’ share of these bills came to $4,278.05. The ER physicians who treated him sent a separate bill of $2,007, for a total of $6,589.77. Total Bills: Jason was charged $4,582.77 by the hospital for a Level 4 emergency visit, including $497.40 for a tetanus shot. DeeAnn received diagnosis and treatment for Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Medical Services: Jason received six sutures for a laceration on his knee and a tetanus shot. The Patients: Jason and DeeAnn Dean, entrepreneurs and aspiring organic farmers who bought a BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee insurance plan with a deductible of $8,000. “I would have had organ damage or possibly death in a few days,” she said. She got treatment with appropriate antibiotics and IV fluids. Then, they drove north nearly an hour to Maury Regional Medical Center, a public hospital in Columbia, Tennessee, where she was diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a potentially deadly tick-borne infection.
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They headed south first to an ER in Huntsville, Alabama, but it was so full of covid patients, she would have had to wait all day. So even though she was deliriously ill, she hit the road in search of cheaper treatment, asking her parents to drive her. She was terrified of a potential bill from the same ER in Pulaski, Tennessee, that had treated her husband. “If they charged Jason this much, what would they charge me?” She visited a doctor the next day, who said her condition was bad enough to go to the ER - but she regarded that option as financially unacceptable. She got tested and the result was negative. The natural-health fanatic was kicking herself for putting off vaccination.
She was pretty sure she had contracted covid-19 - the delta variant was surging across the South.
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