- Jurisdiction
- California
So a couple of month ago I caught pink eye and had to be seen by a doctor. I went to Cedars Sinai (Los Angeles), which happened to be close to where I lived, and told the nurses in the reception area of the emergency room that I needed to be seen by a doctor for my eye, that I had no insurance, and asked how much such a visit was going to cost me. I was quoted approximately 300$ for the visit. Since that amount was something I could afford I agreed to that and proceeded with providing my personal details. Long story short, I waited patiently in the emergency room, somebody took my pressure, and then the doctor visited me for ten minutes and prescribed me some eye drops. When the bill came in I found out that I had been charged not only 300$ for the visit and 150$ for the eye drops, but also 6500$ for the use of the emergency room, kindly reduced to 1200$ by the hospital management. Leaving on the side that it seems absurd to be billed 1200$ for having your pressure taken, I feel like I've been swindled by the hospital personnel, because if simply walking through the emergency room entrance warrants charges in the range of thousands of dollars I should have been informed about it, as I would have definitely went somewhere else to be visited. In conclusion, do I have any grounds to dispute that part of the bill?