emergency room treatment self pay

This is probably a stupid question, but...I recently passed out in a hotel room (fell off the toilet after rectal bleeding-gross, sorry) and one of my friends, a nurse drove me to the closest ER despite my objections (I have a history of colon cancerbue was recently sort of screened)....the ER treated me as a leper when I told them I was uninsured...I looked pretty bad (pale and diaphoretic) and asked them to treat me as a self-pay..I gave them all of the cash that I had (about $600) and they still told me that "I should have had insurance"...fine...I got up to leave when the ER doc notices my active bleeding and tells me that I'm not free to leave...........she shoves paperwork in front of me basically giving my consent to paying for whatever they want to do..I refuse, asking for only treatment that I can pay for and I'm refused......I try to leaveand basically get restrained.....I have a Ph.D. and can't believe that patients are treated this way!  I just got home and the ER doc wants me to come back for a colonoscopy; I would rather bleed than be treated by these people.....is going the the ER a blanket athorization to consent to whatever they want to do? thanks

[Amir Mostafaie]

Dear jerrybillets,

Emergency rooms are obligated to treat life threatening emergencies before they ask for any insurance information. It sounds like the staff on duty did not determine your situation as a life threatening emergency until they noticed your active bleeding.

Typically once the staff admits a patient, they will have to follow a protocol based on their training. This Protocol or “Differential Diagnosis” is used to pinpoint the condition that is causing a series of signs & symptoms and eventually the disease. If the protocol calls for a series of tests that cost $2000, the ER staff will not and should not stop at a certain dollar amount, because the 1st $1000 may be to rule out 2 conditions & the 2nd $1000, yet another condition. Imagine what will happen if they run a few tests that cost $1000 & get normal results but there is still need for more tests to rule out 1 more condition & they can’t test for it anymore! Frankly the ER staff does not even know what the costs of most treatments are!  

I am sorry about your experience and I hope you are feeling better and I certainly hope that you have obtained some sort of insurance and continue with your treatment.

Sincerely,

Amir Mostafaie