Family socked with 'mind-blowing' bill for toddler's routine illness tests
Raw StoryAn Illinois family was shocked by an exorbitant bill for routine medical tests for their toddler daughter. The hospital billed $445 for the combined COVID and flu test, and even though the family never saw a doctor, they owed $298.15 after an insurance discount, which Wettstein thought seemed unusually high since she had seen that Walgreens sells an at-home Covid-flu combination test for $30 and can perform higher-quality PCR testing for $145. Insurance companies had been required to pay for COVID tests without passing the costs on to patients, but bills for those tests skyrocketed when the public health emergency declared in 2020 expired in May 2023. “That’s a pretty healthy markup the hospital is making on it,” said Loren Adler, associate director of the Brookings Institution’s Center on Health Policy. " “We follow policies that support the safety and wellbeing of our patients, which includes the initial triage of symptomatic patients to the Emergency Department," said Brittany Simon, a public relations manager for Carle Health.
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