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This College Student Was Charged An Absurd Amount For A 15-Minute Visit

<div><p>Matt Anderson is a college student who was just trying to do the right thing. </p><p>Anderson had just made dinner and was doing the dishes when he happened to cut his finger on a knife. Since he had used the same knife to cut raw meat earlier, he figured he should probably go to the emergency room before he got a nasty infection. </p><p>Anderson got to the hospital around 11pm. Just after midnight, a nurse cleaned the wound, a doctor came by and gave him stitches, and he was discharged around 1am, just two hours later. </p><p>"I saw a nurse for maybe five to 10 minutes and a doctor for maybe five minutes tops," he <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/6/14493132/emergency-room-bill-bandage">says</a>.</p><p>A few months later he got the bill and was absolutely shocked. </p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/5bill1-685x244.png" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/5bill1-685x244_GH_content_550px.png 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/5bill1-685x244_GH_content_650px.png 650w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img><figcaption class="op-vertical-center"><cite>VOX</cite></figcaption></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p>The total bill was around $2700. The main issue here is that Anderson was charged for TWO DAYS at the hospital, because his visit overlapped. </p><p>These ridiculous charges aren't uncommon, unfortunately. Neil Chasan took his infant to the ER when he fell and cut his scalp on the corner of a wall. </p><p>They charged us $500 for infants Tylenol," he <a href="http://twentytwowords.com/what-this-college-student-was-charged-for-a-15-minute-er-visit-will-enrage-you/6/">said</a>. "I called and offered to replace the bottle ($4) if the reversed the charge. They refused."</p><div><figure><amp-img src="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/6bill-685x385.jpg" srcset="https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/6bill-685x385_GH_content_550px.jpg 550w, https://www.shared.com/content/images/2017/03/6bill-685x385_GH_content_650px.jpg 650w" sizes="89vw" title="" alt="" height="9" width="16" layout="responsive"></amp-img><figcaption class="op-vertical-center"><cite>Twenty Two Words</cite></figcaption></figure></div><p><!-- [invalid-shortcode] --></p><p>Matt Anderson feels terrible about the charges he racked up. His dad, Todd Anderson, is pretty upset with the hospital.</p><p>"My son is 19, he's trying to do everything right and build his credit, and now I'm worried this will go against [him]," Todd <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/6/14493132/emergency-room-bill-bandage">says</a>. "He still feels very guilty right now. He told me he has 25 meals on his card for the semester, and maybe he could use those to get some money to pay for it."</p><p>The Andersons ended up calling a health insurer negotiator and got the bill down to $722, but it's still a lot of money for a cut finger. </p><p>"I called the walk-in clinics in the area after, who said they would have charged $150 or $225 for something like this," Todd Anderson <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/6/14493132/emergency-room-bill-bandage">said</a>. "I wish they would have said, "˜You can get treatment elsewhere,' and explained how much it was going to cost."</p><p>Have you experience and situation like this before? Let us know. </p><p></p><p></p></div>

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