Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

[Spiderman]

MRA racer #213 Jason "Hammer" Madama highsided during winter testing at HPR and messed-up his elbow pretty bad. He is a self-employed graphic designer and needed surgery. He now has over $200,000 in medical bills, in addition to his regular monthly bills, and is unable to work for about 12 weeks while his arm heals.

Any help you can give is appreciated.

https://www.giveforward.com/fundraiser/yhq3/hammer-s-bow-fund

[Matrix]

$200K...Holy sh**! I hate to ask, but no insurance or just really crappy insurance? I only ask as all the recent insurance changes seem to be introducing some questionable companies to the mix.

Best of luck on recovery.

[slo lee]

Can he get insurance? Obamacare said no prior medical/surgical history can exclude you. Just thinkin'.

[~Barn~]

I would DEFINITELY be looking into stipulations of how he might be able to get coverage from The Affordable Care Act. I'll see about making a contribution too, this definitely sucks for the guy. But on the plus side.. If a elbow specific injury can rack up $200k in med bills, and just a few months of recovery, thank god that he didn't damage more of his body!

[kingtut]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the $200k too. I suppose anything's possible. I had a 45min procedure and just the hospital usage was over $8k. So I'd hate to see what it would have been, had I stayed the night.

[One-ops]

wow! Did he not have inc.?:shock:
Being a racer he'd have to have had it yeah? No way would one do that without it that'd be nuts or really really stooopid.

[Bueller]

You are not required to have insurance as a condition to race.

[One-ops]

Yeah I knew that but How the hell would ya not have it if you were going to is what I'm saying

[Native]

it seems like they charged him 5x since he didn't have insurance, shameful

[Spiderman]

Sorry - I've been busy and haven't had a chance to respond to any of the questions. Here's a little more about the situation:

His bills were closer to $490K (2 surgerys - one was 7.5 hrs - 2 ambulance rides, and 10 days in the ER at $7-$10K per night). He was in between insurance during the off-season, and applying for Obamacare when he had the accident. He does have insurance now, but it only went into effect 1/01/14, and his first surgery was 12/28/13, so it's not covered. He wouldn't race without insurance.

[~Barn~]

Oh my lord...

Here's to hoping that the service providers will work with him. =\

[FZRguy]

He can expect some fairly heavy discounts if self-paying. There are also some grant programs available...a grant paid a $3k ER bill for me when I was between jobs and had no medical insurance. We have United Ins. at FirstBank. My knee replacement in Nov. with overnite hospital stay was $56k, which was discounted via in-network agreements to $21k. My share of the bill is $1842.

[rifleshooter]

The only break I received after my accident of 14 years ago was a slow payment plan. I paid every plug nickel of the bill.

[koop]

$490K???

Screw the doctors, pay his BK lawyer.

[BushyAR15]

It's not necessarily the doctors fault costs are so high and the doctor isn't seeing all that money. I've got a friend whose wife is surgeon. I was joking with him that he must be rolling in the dough. Not so. As a Software engineer with 10 years experience he makes more than his wife. Also the payment schedule and what she had to do to join a firm that is a surgical group was crazy. Too many details to get into, but suffice it to say, doctors coming into the field aren't making a mint....

[FZRguy]

I agree with Bushy, insurance companies run health care in this country. My doctors fee for ACL reconstruction surgery was $3000 (seems reasonable considering he went to Stanford/Yale Med), insurance paid $700. I sometimes wonder how a large orthopedic practice can keep the doors open.

[koop]

Median salary for an orthopedic surgeon $333,000. http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/57.html

I wouldn't worry too much about their finances.

[FZRguy]

From my exp. with the best orthopedic surgeons, $333,000 should be entry-level, bench warmer status. They do things like this, for no money.

http://www.9news.com/news/article/291987/188/Nigerian-teen-receives-hip-replacement

[BushyAR15]

Here's the flip side to your link… Its not like anyone can apply to become a "Surgeon"… and here's what they have to deal with...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/1-million-mistake-becoming-a-doctor/



Median salary for an orthopedic surgeon $333,000. http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/2012/snapshots/57.html

I wouldn't worry too much about their finances.

[mdub]

Chapter 13.. Almost 500k.. That would be my ave.

[#1Townie]

Bk. Sucks but damn. 500k.

[dirkterrell]

Chapter 13.. Almost 500k.. That would be my ave.

Except that student loan debts cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. And the medical industry is a prime example of how industries exempt from anti-competitive laws suck the life out of society. Eliminate those exemptions and the costs of medical care would plummet by a factor of ten almost overnight.

[Native]

Except that student loan debts cannot be discharged in bankruptcy

welcome to the new (same as the old one) America

[mdub]

Except that student loan debts cannot be discharged in bankruptcy. ....



Right.

Stay away from Liberal Arts. The earning to debt ratio of paying the loan is a quick financial suicide

[Native]

I know a guy with a degree from Mines that now owes $60k, and a Dentist that owes $300k

[Radek]

if motorcycle shop can charge 100 an hour , its like doctors pay . I guess the rest is the screws cost , little things are expensive (memory cards ,chips...) .One trident rocket on submarine cost 30M.
Twenty years from now ? Maybe few times more.
Hey its just money , maybe the real cost of trident is couple G's if they made in china

[grafix]

Been a while since I posted on here, but I just broke my back in a snowboarding accident, luckily no where near what this costs, but the ER charged me a ton of fee's that i find questionable. I would ask for an Itemized breakdown of everything and also I would dispute the bill with the provider and possibly threaten with contacting the state. No Hospital ER wants the State board to come in and take a look at what they have been doing because they literally will go through not just his, but all patient records. 99% of the time the hospitals will make a deal with the patient. Also, if you do not have insurance and are Unemployed which he sounds like he may be a freelancer and technically self employed is unemployed, if the hospital is a Catholic Health Partner, they will Forgive the bill. Something else to look into to. I know all of this because my father and older sis worked in an ER.