ER Visit Bill

[CDJ]

Hi,

Living in the LA area, my girlfriend was pregnant and was trying to get insurance through the state, however she was pending some additional paperwork. While sorting this out, she had a miscarriage at 2 AM. I was freaked out and took her to the Kaiser ER. She was there approx. 3 hours most of it in a room waiting for exam and some tests. Bill was as follows:

Emergency Room Dept Visit, 3 K $372 (I think this was for the Dr.)

ER Laboratory, General $70
ER Laboratory, chemistry $281
ER Laboratory, Hematology $78
ER Emergency Room, General $1795

Total of all was $2596. This seems a bit extreme to me and I am honestly regretting taking her to the ER as I probably should have waited until the morning and taken her to another clinic since they literally didn't do anything that would have affected her health for the better in anyway (other than things like the RH test but that could have waited a few more hours). I need to locate the financial papers they had her sign before they started treatment, but something seems off on this. Are there any laws about notifying a potential patient about costs prior to a visit, especially when it may not be an actual 'emergency'?

I'm not sure what course of action to take at this point as this bill and some other bills she and I have add up to what may take us over 7 years to pay off so I'm thinking filing bankruptcy may be the unfortunate answer. Should we request an itemized bill? The whole word 'general' on most of the items is ambiguous. Also should we try to negotiate w the hospital billing dept?

I'd love to be able to pay but I'm still working on paying off some credit cards that I had negotiated payments on. I still have about $20,000 to pay on those. Had I filed bankruptcy at the time I negotiated those, I would be around $25,000 richer and less than 3 years away from the 7 year bankruptcy time frame. Instead I still owe the $20,000 which I will likely take 2 more years to pay off.

I want to pay but sometimes it just doesn't make sense and I'm trying to avoid what would appear to be the same mistake I made 6 years ago. I'm also a full time student and the company I work for is closing the doors so I'll be unemployed in about 4 weeks (company was approved under TAA so I'm hoping to get some certifications paid for out of that once I'm out of work - there's once plus).

Also, before we found out she was pregnant she got a DUI. Is there any hope of asking for extensions on those payments?

Also - yeah there's more - my ex-girlfriend who I have a child with has filed against my girlfriend with DCFS that she is abusing my son. I have a meeting w them on Friday, so hopefully that goes well, however, any good websites to check out on DCFS procedures? I'm going through their site tomorrow. I will also need a lawyer as my ex and I never did anything legal regarding custody. I'm assuming she filed for a custody hearing since she was at the courthouse about 15 minutes before I arrived to file (I decided not to file and let her at least pay the filing fees).

Any help on my current situation, specifically the medical bill 1st would be appreciated. That or perhaps instructions on how to build a workable time machine that takes me back to last May. I've been trying to do everything myself, but I'm drowning here. Thanks!