GOLDFINGER

I entered a Blog at the end of last August regarding an injury to my finger. After Nick, Hallie, Clint and I returned from our backpacking trip we went to the farm for a few days before Nick and Hallie had to return to Seattle. In the process of preparing a "Beer Butt Chicken" to grill my extra sharp knife zipped right through the chicken neck and into my left index finger. At the time I splinted it up with a popsicle stick and tight bandage not realizing that I had severed the tendon that straightens your finger. After discovering the severity of the injury I decided to have it repaired upon the doctor's recommendation. I went through all the discomfort of the surgery including having to wear a splint on that finger for two months and as you can see from the picture the results didn't make a whole lot of difference appearance wise.

Now for the bill (and I'm not making this up). Following are the charges: Surgery Center - $5,736; Doctor - $2,432; Emergency Care $114; Anesthesia $469 for a grand total of $8,751! I kid you not, if I had known the cost and that I would have to pay it, given the questionable improvement, I would have said, "Just leave it be or cut off that joint". Fortunately I didn't have to pay nearly that much. Doctors and hospitals have contractual agreements with insurance companies that they will pay certain amounts for certain procedures. So when the insurance company receives the bill they adjust the amounts that they will pay. They are called Contractual Adjustments and written off by the providers. In this case the Contractual Adjustments were $7,256 leaving $1,261 paid to the providers plus the $235 that I paid. Can you imagine having to get that done without insurance? And the fact that it didn't turn out to your satisfaction is just too bad. I wonder why health insurance is such a problem in this country? M/W