Wife and 3yo daughter out of state in FL for the week, ie out of network. 3yo daughter slips while getting out of a pool and smacks her head. Comes up bleeding out of one nostril which scares everyone. Rushed to ER and passes neuro tests with flying colors, but doctor wants to do a CAT scan just to be safe. We say we think that makes a ton of sense but would like to know cost given our fears that we're out of network and will have to cover it. Ie if it's $8k like I read horror stories about on the internet I want to call another hospital. No one at the hospital has a clue, and furthermore, the CAT scan technically would be billed by 2 separate departments which may bill differently, ie the ER and then Radiology. They suggest calling my insurance. I ask how much it costs if insurance isn't involve. They don't know this either and reiterate I need to call my insurance. I call insurance, they state they have no way of knowing how much this will cost as "it all depends on the agreement they have with the specific provider". Cool, how about XYZ Hospital? This doesn't help, apparently agents don't really KNOW what any of the agreements are either. The agent THINKS the ER visit should be in network given the emergency but isn't sure about the Radiology consult to read the CAT scan. Throw my hands up in the air and just tell the hospital to do the CAT scan, because, you know, my daughter. CAT scan comes back NORMAL! which is huge relief obviously. Still miffed at how little transparency there is in America related to healthcare and insurance though. The bill will be what it is, and we're fortunate to be able to afford it regardless, but where else in America do neither the consumer OR service provider have a damn clue about how much anything else costs? What a stupid system! Don't even mean for this to be a political rant, but there is no way to fix healthcare in America without consumers or users having a better sense for how much stuff costs.

Rant over

Edited to get rid of Hospital name. Don't want to disparage any individual institution, as I don't believe that not knowing what a procedure costs is unique to this hospital.