Operation Steak

Operation Steak was Originally Posted on March 25, 2011 by lavarock

My friend fell, was injured and was rushed by ambulance to the local hospital. There they determined that she had broken her hip. She has a popular HMO which has their major facilities on Oahu, rather than on each island. Thus she was airlifted to Oahu and ambulanced to the medical center.

She asked me to guess what the bill was and I guessed $5,000. Imagine my surprise to find the actual cost was $26,000! Because it was an emergency, there was no copay, thus it was free for her. Granted, she would have rather stayed home with her own hip. Instead, she had a hip replacement on one side. The HMO also paid me to travel to Oahu to meet her and make sure she got back to the Big Island OK with her walker.

I’m sure that there are some who will question why the local hospital could not perform the replacement here. It is my understanding that overnight services may not be ideal to handle some procedures.

To change the subject, tonight she and a friend and I went to Outback for dinner. It was expensive, but quite filling! I probably din’t need to eat so much blooming onion, but eat it I did!