|
I'm only supposed to be in overnight ...
Paying for hospital TV is something that's pretty common around here ... I remember the $3/day fee charged by this same hospital when I was in there as a kid (this was in the mid 70s) for a batch of tests. (The big excitement for me at the time was that my cousin worked in the hospital and they picked her to be the spokesmodel on the welcome video, so I was able to watch her.)
I did encounter one REALLY strange charge recently, though. A friend of mine had been admitted to an "extended care facility," i.e., nursing home, for step-down care and physical rehab following a bout of phlebitis. She did not have a phone in her room. Most health care facilities give you a phone in the room as a matter of course, but then you have to make collect calls, third-party billing, or use a phone card. The nursing home didn't do that. If you wanted a phone, no matter how long your predicted length of stay, you had to have one installed by the phone company ... and therefore paid ALL of the regular installation charges, around $60, as well as taking responsibility for a regular phone bill. And, despite having NO PATIENTS ON TELEMETRY, they banned cell phones in the facility. It's a racket.
|