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Thread: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

  1. #1
    Only here for the free Wi-Fi Site Admin Spiderman's Avatar
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    Unhappy Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.

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  2. #2
    Senior Member Matrix's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    $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.
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  3. #3

    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

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

  4. #4
    I'm pumped... Let's let the healing begin! Lifetime Supporter ~Barn~'s Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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!
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  5. #5
    Member kingtut's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.
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  6. #6
    Senior Member One-ops's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    wow! Did he not have inc.?
    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.

  7. #7
    Gold Member Bueller's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

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


  8. #8
    Senior Member One-ops's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

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

  9. #9

    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

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

  10. #10
    Only here for the free Wi-Fi Site Admin Spiderman's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.
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  11. #11
    I'm pumped... Let's let the healing begin! Lifetime Supporter ~Barn~'s Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Oh my lord...

    Here's to hoping that the service providers will work with him. =\
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  12. #12
    Senior Member FZRguy's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.
    Last edited by FZRguy; Wed Jan 29th, 2014 at 03:02 AM.
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  13. #13
    Member Yearly Supporter rifleshooter's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.

  14. #14
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    $490K???

    Screw the doctors, pay his BK lawyer.

  15. #15
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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....
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  16. #16
    Senior Member FZRguy's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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.
    Last edited by FZRguy; Wed Feb 12th, 2014 at 08:13 PM.
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Median salary for an orthopedic surgeon $333,000. http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/20...pshots/57.html

    I wouldn't worry too much about their finances.

  18. #18
    Senior Member FZRguy's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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/29...ip-replacement







    Last edited by FZRguy; Thu Feb 13th, 2014 at 02:42 AM.
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  19. #19
    Member BushyAR15's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    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-millio...ming-a-doctor/


    Quote Originally Posted by koop View Post
    Median salary for an orthopedic surgeon $333,000. http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/20...pshots/57.html

    I wouldn't worry too much about their finances.
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  20. #20
    Senior Member mdub's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

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

  21. #21
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Bk. Sucks but damn. 500k.

  22. #22
    Chief Viffer Lifetime Supporter dirkterrell's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Quote Originally Posted by mdub View Post
    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.
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  23. #23

    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Quote Originally Posted by dirkterrell View Post
    Except that student loan debts cannot be discharged in bankruptcy
    welcome to the new (same as the old one) America

  24. #24
    Senior Member mdub's Avatar
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    Re: Help Hammer Pay His Medical Bills

    Quote Originally Posted by dirkterrell View Post
    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

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