How much do 3 stitches cost?

Can someone tell me how to immigrate to Iceland or Norway?


For Iceland the first step is to learn Icelandic, as you’ll have to be able to pass a language test:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5150933_icelandic-immigration-laws.html
 
Learning Norwegian is also necessary if you choose to emigrate to Norway.  http://www.mynorway.co.uk/norway_top_10_tips.html also has the useful tip that you should emigrate during the summer.
 
Gangi þér vel! or Lykke til!

This is a very good thread about a very big problem. My perspective is the doctor who puts in the stitches. I do this every day. My colleagues and I have been demonized in these posts. The posts accuse my colleagues of greed, insensitivity, incompetence, etc. I did read most of the posts. There is a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding.  The posts by the medical billers and nurses are good and true but may be difficult to understand to many, kind of like explaning the economy. The most interesting issue is the wide variation in bills.  This is largely due to which hospital chain runs the ER.  The doctors and nurses are not the problem. They are employees. If ER people seem insensitive they have to be to some extent.  They encounter misery 8-12 hours per day. Daily, they can expect to come to work to clean up orifices & excrement,  get spit on, fight with schizophenics ,  see dead people, let people die, get exposed to communicable diseases,  get stuck by dirty needles sometimes, and then after getting stuck by the needle they are expected to smile at the next person, and probably most likely they will. They do not make out the bills. They are not the demons. The hospital chain executives have become very clever and bold at marking up consumables, ( gauze, solution, meds), adding a usage fee for the item, and redefining procedures. They have the time to do this, thats all they do. The mark-up is what gets the cost of three stitches over $500. Compare your medical bill to a online catalog for medical products, Moore Medical for example. The products are very very cheap wholesale. The mark-up is 10-100 fold. They also can charge a usage for certain things. Like if the IV needle costs them $ 2, they charge $50, and then $75 for putting it in. Technically, there is a lot of double charging for usage services. Doctors offices buy these same materials at the same cost and do the same procedures but are prohibited by law for charging for them or their use in most cases. Doing so is called unbundling, and that gets you in trouble. Hospitals have successfully fought off or rather dodged these rules by changing definitions frequently. There are also unnecessary services provided. You rarely need antibiotics, xrays, lab tests or IVs for stitches. But sometimes you get them because someone is being extra cautious. Better to have done more than less when the subpoena comes. And they come every year or so.  The hospital bill is the most padded and therefore the most subject to negotiation. Thats the key, negotiation. You can always go in an get your bill negotiated down. You can hire an expert to do it for you. Your doctor may even do it if the bill is insane. I have done so on several occasions.  I have got $6000 for 7 stitches down to $600. It was that high because the guy got lightheaded at the sight of his blood and when the nurse took his blood pressure it was 90/50 on one occasion. That met the criteria for “critical care” and $1500 got added to the bill. Critical care meant he had to have an IV by policy. That bumped it up by $250. Then some wise guy decided since he had an IV they would give him IV antibiotics instead of another shot which could make him almost faint again.  The antibiotic bumped it up another $1000.  When I examined this bill I could see though it like glass and it was easy to reduce. If you have insurance and a high deductible the insurance plan generally negotiates the padding down in advance.  If you have no insurance you have to do it yourself. The doctor bill is usually reasonable. Contrary to above popular opinion the doctor bill is not padded. We bill for stitches by the length, location, and complexity of repair using CPT codes. The doctor bill must use the correct code.  Its the law. The fee should and usually is usual customary and reasonable (UCR). The AMA can tell you what is UCR  for your area. You can easily fight anything significantly higher. Here are the shoulds, they are very rough shoulds, and they do not take reality or geographics into consideration:
A bill for 3 stitches in the arm, leg, scalp, or trunk with no complicating issues shoulde be $75. In the hand it should be $100. On the back of the finger it should be $ 100.  On the front of the finger it should be $125, but its not, its $100. On the face it should $300. Why the differences. It is because of the consequences of good versus bad work. Each area has inherant risk of injuring other structures or missing deeper injury. A poorly placed stitch in the scalp is of no consequence, in the finger it can ruin your life, really.  3 mm one way or the other in the finger is critical. Catching a nerve or cutting a tendon with the needle can ruin an occupation that relies on that structure. Or missing a cut nerve or cut tendon that was injured and not noticed or repaired. How about catching the Frontal Branch of the Facial Nerve in a suture and paralyzing your forehead. Wont need Botox then.  For those above who have stated that any nurse or PA, or Medic can do a fine job of stitching, well fine, go to them. I grant them superficial wounds of the arms, legs, trunk, scalp. Leave the hands and faces to the doctors, and better yet the plastic surgeons. Nurses, PAs, Medics, and ER doctors do not know enough about hand or face anatomy to safely repair all but the most superficial wounds well and safely. They also cannot give aftercare, which is critical to scarring.  They should not be expected to. They do not have the time. I know so because I was a Navy Corpsman with the Marines, an OR tech, and an ER doc, and have placed thousands and thousands of stitches over 33 years.  If you want a good careful job done, good aftercare, and minimal scarring or risk to underlying structures ask that the plastic surgeon be called in. When he or she arrives ask what the fee will be. If  it is over $500, ask which code they expect to use to bill, offer to pay $300 in cash, they will take it unless there is something complex about your case. If you have missing skin, embedded foreign material, or ragged zig zag wounds expect $ 500-1000. Good stitching is done with magnification. If the person is not using magnifying eyeglasses then then shouldn’t be working on your hands or face. Know that if the specialist comes in, the ER doc cant bill for the procedure, only an evaluation fee. The ER doc sometimes bills more for stitches than the plastic surgeon. And that eval fee should be from a low level CPT code. Check the CPT code used on your bill. It is five digits from 99281 to 99285. It is usually too high. If you are a simple case your CPT code should be 99281. If they use 99283 or higher it is overbilling.  Another tip, dont go to the ER!  Google “occupational medical clinic”, they usually do work comp, but go and and offer cash. If they are privately owned you’re in business. They are  a superbargain during working hours. After hours is trickier but you might  find urgent care or call a  family practice or plastic surgeon  directly and offer cash for a night visit in their office. Almost everybody knows somebody who knows a plastic surgeon. If they are not interested ask for the name of the newest guy in town, they will probably do it. Family practice doctors are very competent stitchers, and they have their own offices. Prepare your list  in advance. Another tip in the ER, ask if the  IVs, shots,, antibiotics,  pain pills and especially  xrays are absolutely necessary. Likely they are not, if you get a head tilt from the doc when asked, consider refusing them, for “religious reasons”. Hey you are just getting stitches here. Keep a list of exactly what was used on you, and the name and degree of everyone who saw you and for how much time. Make sure you know who was the PA who was the ER doc who was the specialist. Get a copy of your EDTR (Emergency Department Treatment Record) immediately, before there is time to add (pad)stuff. This document is gold and you have every right to it immediately. It remains in the ER for about 24 hours after which it cannot be altered. Then it goes to billing and then medical records. Get the entire medical record of the visit including dictated notes by the ER doc and the specialist. With this information you can knock down a bill in negotiation to 10 cents on the dollar.  If antibiotic is recommended by the ER doc after ER go to your general doctor and get antibiotic samples or just keep some around, while you are there have them decode your ER bill. This post is way too long but this is a complex issue. It can be devastating to anyone whether you have insurance or not. Legislation should eliminate the insurance concept except for catastrophic situations. Catastophic coverage should be $50-100/ month mandatory and adjusted for age and risk factors. Any questions or comments directly to me are welcome. You can hard copy really nasty comments to Provider Services P.O. Box 640176 San Francisco CA 94164. The information provided in this post is not intended to be medical advice. Always ask your doctor what is best. Thanks for reading and good luck with your bill.

I don’t know about most doctors, but the Plastic Surgeon who was in the hospital when we brought our son in for stitches from a soccer injury charged us $7,011.00 for 35 minutes of sewing my kid’s eyebrow.

I am being SUED by a Plastic Surgeon for $6,011.50!  Our insurance company, which we pay A LOT of money to, paid their “usual and customary” price of about $1,000.00 to the physician.  The Emergency Room accepted the insurance company fee along with our copay.

So, it is not the Hospital or ER in this matter.  It is a greedy, insane Plastic Surgeon who actually believes he is worth about $12,000 and hour for stitches!  There was no nose job, eye lift or tummy tuck involved.  Really, over $7,000 for stitches!!!

This quack actually told me that he could “charge whatever he wants, this is Bergen County, I can charge Manhattan prices”……tell me there is nothing wrong with this picture.

Until my case is finished, I will not reveal this asses name, but I will when a judge kicks his ass out of the court room.

We live in the bay area.  my son recently tripped and cut the area right next to his eye…we took him to the ER and it required 5 stitches maybe (2 internal, 3 external….or something like that).  We just got the bill from the ER and it was $6000.  this seems insanely high for a few stitches????  I have FOUR BOYS….i’m sure we’ll have a few more ER visits for stitches in our lives….maybe i should figure out how to do it myself?????