EvergreenHealth hopsital in Kirkland should post cost per minute for recovery room | Letter

Published 9:04 am Monday, April 25, 2016

It seems that almost every week EvergreenHealth hospital publishes an article in the Kirkland Reporter praising it for outstanding performance. I am recognizing it for being the most greedy business I have ever dealt with.

In September 2014 I had kidney surgery at Evergreen and the recovery room charge was $1,026 for a 75-minute stay. In February 2016 I had outpatient non-surgical kidney procedure, and was charged $2,840 for a stay of comparable time in the recovery room.

Among other exorbitant charges, I wrote to the hospital questioning the recovery room charge and requesting an explanation for the almost 300 percent cost increase in 16 months. Spurning a written reply, Evergreen had a woman in the financial department call to give me endless irrelevant reasons for all the charges. I was astonished when she finally admitted that the recovery room rate had increased $8 per minute and that it is now $24 per minute.

Nothing special happens in the recovery room. Your vital signs are machine monitored, a nurse walks by occasionally, and you awake from anesthesia. My husband and I discussed vacation plans during the final 15 or 20 minutes of my stay, but we sure as heck would have left had we known we were paying $24 per minute. We do not have co-pay insurance so the money comes from out check book. I suggest Evergreen play fair with patients by posting a notice in the recovery room informing them that the room rate is $24 per minute so that they are not blindsided by absurd costs.

Evergreen could learn from hotels which are at least honest enough to post the room rate on the door.

Luisa Franklin-Bell, Kirkland