I, you do not understand the ICU ward ...... My doctor friend, once said a let her tearful experience:
A 23-year-old boy in the ICU treatment for six months, because there is no wait for the right kidney, the family borrowed money is spent, forced to give up the treatment. When the medical staff slowly pulled out the tube, the patient's breath also one by one weakened, and finally this 23-year-old life, in the ICU finished the last journey. "I wanted to help them, but there was really nothing I could do." There have been many miracles in the ICU, but people and money have been the norm.To most people, the ICU is an unfamiliar presence.
On the one hand, the ICU is the heart of a hospital, with the most advanced equipment and the most specialized medical team in the hospital. The medical staff working in it are described as "special forces", who fight with death every moment and shoulder heavy responsibilities. On the other hand, patients lying in the ICU are often filled with tubes of all kinds, some expressionless, some unconscious, and some in excruciating pain. At the end of the day, medicine and human beings have limitations, and the ICU can't bring the dead back to life.Two of the top ten ICU life-saving devices, in the end, how expensive? ICU beds are figuratively referred to as "life's most expensive bed", and the current cost of staying in a tertiary hospital for a day in the ICU is around 10,000 yuan.
So why is the ICU so expensive? I summarize the most common costs as follows:Directly to the conclusion:
In the treatment of critically ill patients, these devices are likely to be used at the same time, and it may seem that the unit price per hour per time is not expensive, but a day down the cost of money like water. Here I focus on a few instruments:1, ventilator
During the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, a Spanish doctor with tears in his eyes, told the world what Madrid is experiencing: "The elderly over the age of 65 years old were forced to take off the ventilator, with sedative drugs to suppress the pain and wait quietly for death. Because the few ventilators that are left are reserved for the much younger..."The ventilator is commonly used for respiratory failure, anesthetic respiratory management during major surgery, respiratory support therapy, and emergency resuscitation, and is one of the most common instruments in the ICU.
It costs about $300 for a day of tracheal intubation, $350 for the ventilator's tubing, $550 for ventilator application and monitoring, and $250 for related care and suctioning. Only the first day is charged for tracheal intubation, after that this is not charged.2, ECMO
ECMO full name "artificial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation", the most central part of the membrane lungs and blood pumps, respectively, play a artificial lungs and artificial heart role. strong> roles. The myth of ECMO has been circulating on the Internet: A 10-year-old girl suffered a sudden onset of myocarditis and cardiac arrest while playing at recess. After 116 hours on ECMO, she regained her vital signs and was discharged from the hospital. A 26-year-old healthy male, who went swimming after getting drunk, choked on the water and developed severe pneumonia, was on ECMO for 117 days and made a miraculous recovery. During the H7N9 avian influenza outbreak, the patient had to use ECMO because of a severe lung infection, which lasted 124 days, and the patient was finally discharged from the hospital. But ECMO is not very affordable for patients, with 60,000 dollars in start-up costs alone, and around 1,000 dollars per day.3, hemofiltration
Many patients with severe illnesses will have acute kidney injury, elevated creatinine, no urine, etc., which will require a hemofiltration machine (commonly known as: artificial kidney). It can accurately control the amount of liquid out of the patient, quickly regulate the patient's internal environment, but also to do plasma replacement, is one of the indispensable magic weapon ICU. Of course, the downside is that it's still too expensive, costing 8,000 for the first day and 7,000 per day thereafter, and the time of use is unpredictable, so it's a bottomless pit. In addition to the above, the ICU has a lot of black technology. Advances in technology have opened up more possibilities for treatment, but the costs behind them are not affordable for every family.Three, the ICU skyrocketing bill, how much can insurance cover? Insurance is not a necessity, but everyone who has been in the ICU knows how important it is.
Insurance is divided into national health insurance and commercial insurance, and the reimbursement is not the same.1, how much can the health insurance report?
The medical insurance almost everyone has, whether it is the ICU or general ward, the cost of the Medicare three catalog reimbursement. The three main catalogs of the health insurance are: the drug catalog, the diagnosis and treatment catalog, and the service facilities catalog. I'll use the Guangdong catalog as an example:Conclusion:
The health insurance reimburses a portion of your medical expenses, but it's hard to cover all of them, especially for expensive treatments, which are basically not reimbursed 100%. For example, a patient admitted to the ICU with heart failure needs to pay $100,000 out of pocket for a pacemaker, but Medicare will only reimburse $50,000, and the remaining $50,000 will have to be paid out of pocket. In addition, many of the specialty and imported drugs commonly used in ICUs are not reimbursed by Medicare.2. How much does commercial insurance cover?
Commercial medical insurance is an effective supplement to medical insurance, especially "Million Dollar Medical Insurance", which can reimburse 2-3 million dollars per year for just a few hundred dollars, so if you have the misfortune of being in the ICU, you don't have to worry about money at least. As long as the expenses are "reasonable and necessary", MiraMed will cover them, such as the normal medications in the ICU, as well as the use of the artificial lungs and artificial kidneys mentioned earlier. But there are some expensive drugs that hospitals don't always stock, and you may need to go out and buy them yourself, and that's when not all medical insurance will cover them.As the chart shows, reimbursement for out-of-home drugs varies widely by insurer (detail).
On top of that, expense advances (detailed) are also a useful feature - after all, there aren't many families that can come up with a large sum of cash.3. Remember to apply for major medical benefits When I was watching some documentaries, I realized that some doctors take the initiative in applying for government benefits on behalf of their patients. Later I learned that many places have subsidy policies for major illnesses. This kind of subsidy is mainly for poor families, and usually amounts to a few tens of thousands of dollars, so check with your local civil affairs bureau. In addition, there are a number of charitable foundations, we can ask more, the key moment can also solve some of the urgent needs.Four, written in the last ICU is the most can reflect the human nature of the place, "treatment or not" is a deep soul torture.
The treatment, in addition to the patient to withstand great pain, the high cost will at any time crush most of the family; not cure, give up the last hope of loved ones, may leave a lifetime of regret. No one wants to go into the ICU, but in the unfortunate event that it does, I hope that insurance will add to your courage.