United States | News & Politics

2001 readers

1326 users here now

Welcome to [email protected], where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

Post anything related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

165

'Ridiculous': Doctor charges for surgery after pulling splinter from toddler's hand (www.rawstory.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

28 comments fedilink hide all child comments

When George Lai of Portland, Oregon, took his toddler son to a pediatrician last summer for a checkup, the doctor noticed a little splinter in the child’s palm. “He must have gotten it between the front door and the car,” Lai later recalled, and the child wasn’t complaining. The doctor grabbed a pair of forceps — aka tweezers — and pulled out the splinter in “a second,” Lai said. That brief tug was transformed into a surgical billing code: Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code 10120, “incision and removal of a foreign body, subcutaneous” — at a cost of $414.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I really appreciate the insightful discussion that you offered in this thread, especially a few comments up where you were (justifiably) annoyed but also still civil.

I live in the UK and a friend who is a doctor told me about when they had a doctor friend from the US visit. My friend joked about how little they get paid when you consider how much unpaid labour they did, and jokingly said "maybe I should move to the US". Their US friend responded that the impression that healthcare professionals in the US get paid way better is mostly incorrect, especially if we're comparing to a country with socialised healthcare. They did some number crunching and confirmed that this US doctor would be way better off in the UK