I saw my thread rise to the top so I will fill everyone in on our current situation.

Yesterday my husband was officially diagnosed with Crohn's disease. The stomach pain that landed him in the ER was his first flared up and honestly I think it could have been much worse if our family practice doctor hadn't told us not to wait on the Hepatitis test results. He is not receiving therapy for Crohn's and finally feeling better. We hope he has avoided stomach surgery, but at this point it is still possible. They are trying to start him on Remicade tomorrow.

The portion we owe the doctor after insurance is $250. I have contested the bill with his group and am waiting a review by their physcians panel. The other $157 I am comfortable paying to the hospital. The hospital did some X-rays and the Ultrasound, which the second hospital did not need to do again. It shortened the time needed to find out what was going on when we ended up back at the hospital. One way or another we would have paid for those tests.

I felt it was right to appeal this bill. I do not think this doctor should get our hard earned money. There is no reason in my opinion not to request the CT scan since his liver count was 1/10 of what the doctor himself said he normally sees with Hepatitis. He went with Hepatitis because it was 2:00 am on a Friday, he had a Hepatitis case the week before and he was confused. Why not call the GI doctor on call that night for a consult? The pain my husband endured for 3 additional days was not acceptable.