A TikToker claimed that her friend’s bassinet was billed as an extra room by their hospital after giving birth.
This week Dr. Emzieees (@dr.emzieees) posted a clip alleging that as she was helping her friend review an itemized bill, and they noticed that the hospital “charged her for two rooms when she had her baby because they counted the baby’s bassinet as a room.” The video has reached over 753,000 views as of Friday.
@dr.emzieees Please just remember that when you see these charges, it is not your physician or provider putting them in (except in rare cases.) asking for an itemized bill often lowers costs.
♬ original sound – M9.PRODZ
In her caption, Dr. Emzieees elaborated. “Please just remember that when you see these charges, it is not your physician or provider putting them in (except in rare cases). Asking for an itemized bill often lowers costs.”
In a follow-up video, Dr. Emzieees expanded on some of the ways that these charges might pile up. She stated that oftentimes in-network hospitals will contact out-of-network providers, leading to costs that might not be covered by insurance “even though you had no way of knowing that.”
The comments in her initial video were overwhelmingly echoing a sense of frustration at this situation, with many sharing similar stories. “I got charged twice for anesthesia cause my provider switched during my labor. Isn’t that wonderful,” claimed one user.
“They charged me $10,000 as a ‘nursery fee’ to have my daughter in the room with me.. they didn’t have a nursery for her to go to…” claimed another user.
“I am a hospital coder. We are told not to question charges put in by the floor. I always remove duplicates if I see them tho.”
This phenomenon is not new to TikTok, with many users posting their own experiences and hacks to maneuver these situations. On Jan. 2, Milan (@milansinghhh) posted a video that included tips for negotiating a medical bill. Milan’s video has amassed 2.8 million views as of Friday.
Many TikTokers have also shared their personal stories, including one TikToker who claimed in April 2022 that his medical bill was reduced by 76% after receiving an itemized bill.
In June, a nurse claimed on TikTok that she has never once paid a hospital bill, claiming that “hospitals are robbing y’all.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Dr. Emzieees via email and Milan via TikTok.