C'mon, man. That's some fukk shyt by the hospitals
Patients keep getting charged for crying
Plus a roundup of healthcare news, for subscribers only.
www.sicknote.co
People hate Twitter for a lot of good reasons, but it undeniably rules when people post their insane medical bills and it goes viral. This week, a woman in New York tweeted about her sister’s bill, which ostensibly included “$40 for crying.”
Camille Johnson @OffbeatLookMy little sister has been really struggling with a health condition lately and finally got to see a doctor. They charged her $40 for crying.
May 17th 2022
66,132 Retweets515,709 Likes
The tweet was similar to another post that went viral last year: A person whose bill for a mole removal included $11 for “Brief emotion,” which the poster assumed was because she cried. She got $2.20 off, though.
Midge @mxmclainMole removal: $223 Crying: extra
September 28th 2021
15,607 Retweets192,167 Likes
The “Brief emotion” line in the second tweet is short for “brief emotional/behavioral assessment,” the same charge as in the first tweet, which falls under CPT code 96127. (You can just see the end of the code on the left column there.) The full definition is: “Brief emotional/behavioral assessment (e.g., depression inventory, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] scale), with scoring and documentation, per standardized instrument.” So neither patient was charged for crying, per se; they were charged for being screened for depression or other mental health problems. The American Academy of Family Physicians says that this code should only be used for “purely preventive” screening, not based on signs or symptoms—like crying in the doctor’s office, for example. Hmm!
