Lifeguard gets $2,600 bill after rescuing boy from surf

[Jesus Jones]

3rd World US! I seem to remember a while back on TV someone saying not to help a motor accident victim as you could be landed with the bill!


The nearly $2,600 billed to a 17-year-old lifeguard who rescued a drowning boy off the coast of Oregon is being paid by anonymous donors.

John Clark of Vancouver, Wash., a trained lifeguard, jumped through the breakers and heavy swells to reach the boy in the ocean, reported KOIN-TV. Clark then calmed the boy and kept him afloat until watercraft arrived to take them to shore.

Clark and the 12-year-old boy were taken to the hospital, which Clark thought was standard procedure.

But a few weeks later he was billed for the hospital services.

The emergency room bill came to $449. The physician's bill was $227. The 15-mile ride in the ambulance was $1,907. The total bill for saving a young man's life was nearly $2,600.

Lifeguard gets $2,600 bill after rescuing boy from surf | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

[VocalNeal]

See Obamacare should in theory get rid of all this nonsense.

[buriramboy]

$1,900 for a 15 minute ride in an ambulance???? No wonder the 50 million people in America living in poverty can't afford to go to hospital.

[BaitongBoy]

And here I thought it was the hospitals that overcharged...

[harrybarracuda]

What a fucking joke.

Someone should name and shame whoever is charging that for a fucking ambulance.

[harrybarracuda]

Well it seems the hospital is the one that put it all together, breaching their own policies:

Financial Information

We know you're here to get better. Patient Financial Services is here to make the billing process as painless as possible.
When you receive services at our hospital, we open a patient account in your name where we record all financial transactions related to your care. When you come to us for treatment, our Patient Financial Services department will be happy to talk to you about payment options. If you have given us health plan information, we will submit a claim on your behalf and will keep you informed of the outcome. Payment of your co-pay and deductible is expected at the time of service. Note that most doctors are independent practitioners and are not hospital employees or agents. They will bill you and/or your health plan company separately.

So they obviously kept it quiet and sent the bill out hoping someone would just pay it without it hitting the press.

Wankers.

[Mid]

under what stupidity is it the life guards responsibility ?

[FailSafe]

He probably signed the kid in and ended up unknowingly taking responsibility for he payments- the hospital staff should have made sure this didn't happen, but if you watch the video the 17-year-old has a full beard and looks way older- he might have been mistaken for the kid's father.

The hospital should have agreed to eat the bill, but where are the parents of the victim? They should have stepped up and paid or made an insurance claim.

[Norton]

^ Agree with all you said. Sure it was a shock to the guy who saved the 12 year old. He was on holiday visit from Vancouver. Having to pay a hospital bill not something your average Canadian ever experiences.

Welcome to US health care!!

[Mid]

but where are the parents of the victim?

indeed , note that the account is currently being settled by anonymous donors .....................

[kingwilly]

Fuck that, stupid crunts.

[Mid]

^

who ?

the donors ?

[Bettyboo]

God Bless America.

[harrybarracuda]

but where are the parents of the victim?

indeed , note that the account is currently being settled by anonymous donors .....................

A comedy phrase in the US: "Affordable Health Care".

[ENT]

When you consider that the Pentagon lost something like 2.3 trillion dollars in loose change just before 9/11, about a quarter of its yearly budget, and that the US population is about 314 million, the US government could afford to house, clothe, feed, educate and pay for the medical care of the total US population with that "loose change", with enough left over to give every man woman and child a yearly paid for three week vacation anywhere.

So why not?

[pickel]

He was on holiday visit from Vancouver. Having to pay a hospital bill not something your average Canadian ever experiences.

Wrong Vancouver Norton. The lad is a Yank.

John Clark of Vancouver, Wash.

[barbaro]

3rd World US! I seem to remember a while back on TV someone saying not to help a motor accident victim as you could be landed with the bill!


The nearly $2,600 billed to a 17-year-old lifeguard who rescued a drowning boy off the coast of Oregon is being paid by anonymous donors.

John Clark of Vancouver, Wash., a trained lifeguard, jumped through the breakers and heavy swells to reach the boy in the ocean, reported KOIN-TV. Clark then calmed the boy and kept him afloat until watercraft arrived to take them to shore.

Clark and the 12-year-old boy were taken to the hospital, which Clark thought was standard procedure.

But a few weeks later he was billed for the hospital services.

The emergency room bill came to $449. The physician's bill was $227. The 15-mile ride in the ambulance was $1,907. The total bill for saving a young man's life was nearly $2,600.

Lifeguard gets $2,600 bill after rescuing boy from surf | The Lookout - Yahoo! News

The United States is SH*THOLE.

[Rural Surin]

God Bless America.

Nah...
I don't think she could be bothered.

Blessings, indeed.