I am writing this as if I was looking at the accident. As if this wasn’t my accident and I am not involved what’s so ever.
Some parts feel very personal and some other parts feel so foreign.
He was biking, but the bike stopped suddenly; the patient continued on going forward by the law of physics. While carrying a heavy backpack, he landed on his shoulder and rolled on the ground. He heard cracking noises and this was when he knew something was wrong.
* Went to the nearest hospital and got Xray number 1.
He called his insurance “HTH Insurance” and they assured him that they will pay him all the money for anything that is required for him.
Facing the doctors while feeling tremendous pain they didn’t want to touch him but said that the clavicle was broken and the shoulder was dislocated but because he was international it causes them so much liability.
Waiting for the insurance to contact the poor patient, but they never did. Meanwhile he never wondered what to do during that time as it is a must that he notifies his family about what happened but without scaring them…after all he didn’t yet know what was happening.
Decided to call the insurance they kept on not answering…and when they did they reply was always we are still working on it, you are covered but give us some time.
I asked if I can go to another hospital which would be able to help me with my injury because the hospital in which i was didn’t want to even give me pain killers. and the insurance after postponing me 2 hours, they finally told me that I will be covered if I go to the second hospital.
* then he was transferred to another hospital who suggested a surgery on the clavicle alone just based on Xray 1
To tell you the truth, it was a bit scary…It was a public hospital and some patients are waiting in the hall while dripping blood everywhere. and it is overpopulated. I couldn’t do anything the doctor didn’t even look at me and he said that I need to pay 10’000 rmb to get a bed and then another 30’000 rmb to get the surgery. It was Sunday so the doctor can’t see me so I will have to wait in the hospital from Sunday till Tuesday to get an appointment and then if it needed a surgery then it would be on Wednesday or Thursday.
That sounded like a horrible idea but looking at the people around me and the amount of pain they are in made me feel less pain as I was not the worst case here. I guess I am just trying to look at it in a positive way.
Let’s talk about the insurance because they really didn’t help at all.
Once I arrived I called them and explained to them how it works here and asked how would the hospital get their money so I can get treated.
What they explained to me was that they will contact their doctors and that their doctors will contact the hospital and then they will interview the hospital and they will decide if it is a good care then the doctors from the insurance will contact the insurance back then the insurance will call me back so I have to be patient but it took forever.
As a person who respect rules I waited for them to go through their own procedure to follow the system. Them knowing that the hospital in china, they made some doctors call the hospital and ask questions in English…That was not smart because the doctors are smart and all but they didn’t know English. and they knew that. I called them again to explain that calling the hospital while having only 1 person who speaks English on the other end of the line is none sense and isn’t helping me in any way.
5 hours passed by trying to deal with this issue and then trying to explain to them that the doctor that will call have to be able to speak mandarin or Shanghainese, they dismissed everything I said every time.
Eventually they called the hospital, made the doctors very angry and the doctor is already under pressure because he can’t do it all help patients and stay on the phone with the insurance company for 15-20 min he has to help people who are bleeding or have some sort of metal tube coming from their leg.
They called me eventually after 2 hours (making that 7 hours in total since I arrived) that they won’t pay me a dime and if I pay anything in this hospital it won’t be reimbursed. I obviously asked why and their response was simply they didn’t qualify to be a good hospital based on the couple of questions we asked them.
one of the questions was if the patient (me) is able to leave the hospital, the doctor answered that if I leave he can’t bring me back without me willing … and that was a wrong answer… really ???
Trying to be calm after 7 hours in pain, I asked that they would recommend a hospital in which when I arrive I would be treated immediately and won’t have to wait for these shenanigans.
* He was then transferred to a third hospital based on the insurance recommendation and because the third hospital gives better care
They took Xray number 2 then reduced the shoulder but nothing should happen to the clavicle as their advice was to leave it heals by itself
then they took X-ray number 3 then they were not sure if the shoulder was reduced properly or not
They took CT scan because the Xray apparently weren’t clear.
And the insurance paid for it. It was super simple fast and perfect. Well just the last part. Why Wasn’t this possible from the beginning ?
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