My son in law called me yesterday while I was in a store. He said that he had just been in a car accident and his truck was totaled. A million thoughts went through my mind one after another.  He is a special case. In two days he and my daughter are closing on their first house. They have saved for their down payment for years.  I am so proud of them. I asked him how badly he was hurt. He said he was hurt but didn’t know how badly.  I told him if he thought it was life threatening to go to the E.R immediately, but otherwise I would come home and check him out.

I have seen many bills over $25,000 from the Englewood Emergency Room for only a cursory exam and then a CAT scan that Medicare would only pay $450 total for that exact same thing. I’ve seen hospitals sued for extortion for using the exact same billing tactics.

After I examined him I arranged for a local imaging facility to perform all the imaging studies for 1/50th  the price that the E.R. would charge.

Had he gone to the E.R. the bill from the hospital would have been so outrageous that my kids would not have qualified for their first house mortgage after saving for years because of the hospital bills. My choice for a hospital E.R. is Sarasota Memorial Hospital. While they are expensive they are not predatory in their hospital charges.

If you are in a car accident and are questioning whether to go to the hospital E.R. and have a choice to, go to Sarasota Memorial. If you were in a mild to low end moderate car accident please call me and I will order all your needed tests for 1/50th the cost of  a visit to the local Emergency Room.