The victory of Robert Dennis, a high school teacher, over COVID-19 may be good news for the world. However, it happened to be quite “scary” for the family given the post-effect of the stay in the hospital for weeks.
The survivor remained admitted at Sky Ridge Medical Centre for weeks and fought against the coronavirus, finally beating the infection successfully. While he is back home after an effective recovery, his journey is still stuck with the virus as his first statement for the care cost is way beyond his expectations. The hospital bill amounts to $840,386.94, including only his intensive care unit and intubation for two consecutive weeks.
“Seeing that number yesterday for the first bill, it kind of took your breath away again,” Suzanne, Robert’s wife, who too beat the virus, told Denver7. “His meds just at the hospital are a quarter-million dollars,” she added.
The billing still does not cover the three weeks that Robert spent at Spalding Rehabilitation Hospital. Also, the wife’s movement to the emergency room while she suffered and fought against the virus has not yet been billed. With the inclusion of all of these, they believe the total bill will easily cross one-and-a-half million dollars. The couple is entirely relying on the insurance they have and plan to arrange for the payments early next week.
“I would have probably sat down and cried yesterday if I didn’t know we had insurance, and that was pretty good, but if you don’t have that comfort of knowing something is there, I don’t know how you make that ok with yourself,” Suzanne said.
In conversation with Denver7, the Colorado Division of Insurance said that the patients covered under their department’s insurance policies would be protected by a state emergency regulation. It added that if a medical care unit or hospital received CARES Act funding, it would not even require the hospitals to send bills for Coronavirus treatment.
In addition to what health administration of the state and country is doing to make things easier for the survivors to handle, Denver7 has also taken a new initiative to make COVID-19 treatment journey easier for the public through its Contact7Cost of Care. Using this, patients can navigate the healthcare system and switch to the care they need.