my wife still has pain in her wrist after she had fallen over and broke it a year ago, got an x-ray, was referred to a specialist, the specialist charged $200 to take a look at the x-ray shots said that he would need further shots (mri, etc) at a different angle and she was told that for now she would need a wrist band, so the lady in the other office put on a wrist band on her arm which had metal rods running through it, when walking out, they said it would be $150 for the wrist band, then when she asked what the $150 was for, they said 'it was for the wrist band', after checking the invoice it was written as $90 for 'consultation' (to put the wrist band on) and $60 for the 'wrist band', when the lady put on the band, it was never disclosed she was going to charge for her time, nor did she say the band would cost.. has anyone else been in such a situation? what can i do about it? out of this whole consulation, could have just gone out and got the special wrist band for $35 online (thats how much the same thing sells for online)so in total, it was $350, honestly, feeling ripped off..
Specialist Charge
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If your wife had a scaphoid fracture that wasn't picked up because you didn't want to pay for imaging, you would feel pretty bad. If your wife develops a complex fracture because you didn't want to pay for someone to properly immobilise the wrist, you would feel pretty bad too.
Why even visit medical practitioners when you can just buy drugs online, self-diagnose with wikipedia and WebMD, and treat using an ipad app?
My point is you didn't get ripped off - you should have been informed about the cost of what you were paying for, but the money you paid was justified in my opinion.
You should get some back from Medicare. Not a lot but some.
yeah only got $70 back which is ok.
Yeah mate, when it comes to the wife, don't be stingy. No amount of money can be worth the aggravation.
Yeah mate, when it comes to the wife, don't be stingy.
I read this part and thought 'aww, that's sweet'
then I read the rest and lol'ed.
I fail to understand why seeing a Specialist cost that much in Australia. I was so pissed off when I found out that my private health insurance does not cover any specialist fees….I straight away rang them to reduce my cover to bare minimum to avoid taxes.
Doesn't sound too unusual for a specialist to charge that much, IMO. Both my parents are getting on in years and have seen a variety of specialists that have charged around that much for a consult (without even walking away with goodies like a wrist brace). It's expensive, yes, but if the specialist you saw is sincere and not just milking every patient they get, then you should probably follow through with the MRI and wrist brace and completion of the investigation. As someone has already mentioned, if she's got complications from a scaphoid fracture (for instance) that hasn't healed properly, then it will need to be dealt with.
You'll probably kick yourself if you seek another opinion and end up charged for a whole new consult and brace and be sent off to get another scan anyway.
Good luck.
oh, and just to put medical costs into perspective… I had to get a full blood work up done recently. Didn't pay a cent of course, thanks to Medicare, but my GP was telling me how that test would ordinarily cost $600 out of pocket for someone not covered by Medicare. I had no idea how expensive these things were (felt a bit sick actually, knowing how many tests I've had in the recent years). We're pretty damn lucky as a country to have cover like that for most medical expenses.
As soon as you step into the premises, you will have to surrender your hard earned money, even if the specialist only look at the wrist for 5 seconds.
I had ringing in my ear, told myself a couple of ear drops will do wonder. Instead I went to see a GP for a total of 3 minutes. Cost me 50 bucks + ear drops.
Fifty bucks sounds reasonable. Try asking a solicitor or an accountant to fix your ear see how much they charge….
You must live in a one doctor town. There are so many GPs and medical centers in our area that I have yet to find one that doesn't bulk bill to Medicare.
I was born and raised in Sydney. Never paid for a GP in my whole life (or even heard of GPs charging people). Everything is bulk billed.
Then I moved to Canberra at age 22. Suddenly I had no choice but to pay for a GP… there wasn't one single bulk billing GP in Canberra (as of 2010) that I could find. All my work colleagues paid for GPs too. It's the norm there. I couldn't believe it.
My mum taught me, sometimes you just have to spend money to avoid problems.
She is like the human equivalent of Yoda. Her wisdom matched only by her mastery of ataru.With something related to health, a few hundred is not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
You can easily make up the difference in a few weeks on OZB. Hope your wife gets well soon.
You promptly hand the wristband back and say you wish to find something suitable elsewhere….