I Had to Pay $1,463 for an ‘Advance Payment’ Before My Son Had an Appendectomy—and No One Will Tell Me Why

A Texas mother was shocked to discover that doctors would not give her son surgery to remove his appendix until her husband paid more than $1,000.

Dr. Emily Porter, a sexual health and wellness physician in Austin, Texas, said that her second grader developed appendicitis overnight and had to undergo emergency surgery.

Even though her son was in critical condition, the hospital demanded an upfront payment of $1,463.93 without explaining how administrators arrived at that amount. Normally, Dr.’s copay is: Emergency room porter only $250.

The hospital’s preventive payment request is processed by Dr. Porter and others considered a violation of EMTALA.

This law says that anyone who goes to the emergency department must be stabilized by physicians, regardless of their insurance status, and then billed.

Dr. Porter said she believes this violates a federal law that requires emergency departments to stabilize patients regardless of whether they have insurance to pay all or part of the bill.

Dr. Porter said: ‘Why is it that when you ask what something is going to cost so you can plan/price it, no one seems to know, but somehow they can figure this out on the fly before the surgery has even taken place and without a detailed explanation of the benefits?’

She added that she was not the one who took her son to the hospital, but her husband. He was given no choice and since his child needed surgery, he did not want to delay the process any further and paid the significant amount.

Patients without a true emergency who go to the emergency room must pay a $150 deposit.

However, under EMTALA or the Emergency Treatment and Labor Act, hospitals cannot demand payment until someone in a medical emergency has been stabilized. And appendicitis is a medical emergency.

Dr. Porter said, “It seems like a violation of EMTALA at worst and distasteful at best for a parent of an acutely ill child. I think I’ll raise hell so it doesn’t happen to the next person.”

It is not clear in which hospital Dr.’s child was taken. Porter is admitted, but there are about fifty in town.

Hospitals that violate EMTALA risk paying tens of thousands of fines and even losing their contracts for federal funding

Most hospitals in the country receive some amount of government funding, but some are private and not covered by EMTALA.

If Dr. Porter’s son went to a private hospital, that could explain the charge, although it is much more common to pay after discharge.

Violating EMTALA puts government funding at risk.

If the hospital is found to have violated the law, it could face financial penalties of up to $100,000 and could file a civil lawsuit.

Hospitals that violate the law could also lose their Medicare and Medicaid provider agreements.

Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it was investigating two hospitals for allegedly violating the law after failing to provide necessary stabilizing care to a person experiencing a medical emergency.

The National Women’s Law Center filed the first EMTALA complaint on behalf of Mylissa Farmer, naming Freeman Hospital West of Joplin, Missouri, and the University of Kansas Health System in Kansas City, Kansas.

Staff there refused to perform a life-saving abortion at 18 weeks, despite the risk that Ms Farmer could have contracted an infection, suffered bleeding and possibly died because that care would have been an abortion.

The Biden administration has repeatedly said that the EMTALA language includes allowances for an emergency abortion to be performed in the event that the mother’s life is in danger. However, hospitals in many red states are reluctant to implement this for fear of legal and financial penalties.