UofL Health - Jewish Hospital

On 03/31/2018 I went to Jewish Hospital Shelbyville, KY with acute appendicitis.

I arrived at the emergency room at around 10 PM where I was checked in for tests. After 90 minutes they brought me in for an MRI and I was informed that I had an inflamed appendix and would need surgery to remove it. While waiting for a surgeon I was repeatedly told by, the nurse that was taking blood samples, that I should “really take more care of your blood pressure it’s extremely high. Don’t you care about your wife? Do you want to die of a heart attack??” Sorry that my EXTREME PAIN was making my blood pressure rise! After 5 hours in the ER they finally told me “All of our doctors are on spring break” and they would need to transfer me to Jewish Hospital Louisville and the ambulance should be there in an hour. Three and a half hours later, the ambulance finally showed up at 6:30AM. They had called a transport company, NOT an emergency ambulance service, so I got to listen to the ambulance drivers argue at the foot of the bed, about how they weren’t equipped to transport someone in my condition. After they called their supervisor and argued with him over the phone for a few minutes, they patted me on the back and said “Sorry, if something happens to you in route all we can do is try to get you to the ER faster!” They finally got me to Jewish Hospital Louisville, KY for the necessary surgery around 7:30AM. I was then informed that my appendix had ruptured and that, what should have been an outpatient procedure was now an in-patient procedure and I ended up spending three days in the hospital with peritonitis.
My insurance coverage states that if an emergency room visit becomes an in-patient procedure, the $200 emergency room co-pay is waived, and the only billing will be deductible and in-patient procedure charges. Jewish Hospital Shelbyville has sent a bill for the $200 co-pay.