There is nothing worse than a bad hangover. Except maybe a hangover that ends up costing you tens of thousands of dollars.
There's a 30-year-old guy named Cameron Fisher who got married in Denver this past April. Like many guys who are about to tie the knot, he had his bachelor party just two days before the wedding. Well, that bachelor party must have been crazy since the next day he decided to go to the nearest ER to help with his hangover.
He was dehydrated, so they gave him an IV drip, a little anti-nausea medication, took his blood to run tests and discharged him 45 minutes later when he felt better. He then went on to get married a day later.
Then a few weeks later, he got the bill from the emergency room for $12,460, or more than twice the cost of his wedding. Why was it so high? He went to a private ER, which are banned in many states but for some reason are legal in Colorado. Seems these kinds of ER's are able to charge pretty much what they want.
For example, they rated the complexity of Cameron's case a four out of five, so they could charge a higher rate. They ran tests on his blood without asking and charged thousands for them. They charged $700 for the saline, which retails for $22.
Cameron was able to negotiate the bill down to $4,694, and his insurance will cover $2,102 of that. But he's still stuck with $2,592, which he says he can't afford. He said, "That's quite the expensive bachelor party."
He would be correct.
Source: CBS NEWS