It was the cat's meow that drove me to a prestigious Boulder County Hospital's emergency room onesummer day.

The cat's meowing tones flowed across the grass to my lawn chair and it was more than any man could bear. So hand outstretched I, "Here Kitty, Here Kittyed" him out of the brush with a promise of a left over cup of delicious milk. Scrawny, emaciated with rib cage showing and missing hair spots told of his battles in the alleys of Boulder. One eye dripping, he limped toward me, feral but curious hungry. That grrrr I heard was not a purrr. I should have known.

I entered a Boulder, Colorado, county hospital's emergency department withmy scratched upper hand. A doctor spent less than five minutes evaluating the cuts and referred the treatment to the hospital's staff. The doctor billed $167, a tidy sum of $33.40 per minute for what it termed Visit #153166 emergency dept. evaluation. Medicare disallowed 108.86 and paid him $46.51. Poor guy only made $9.30 per minute, plus $11.63 by secondary insurance. Not bad for a doctor who's running from one patient to another on a bloody emergency Saturday night. When asked about the charge, the receptionist said, "That's what we charge. Period!"

Then the hospital billed $232 because it was an emergency department visit (#99238). Two hundred and $32 dollars for the other five minutes. At five minutes that's $46.40 per minute. Medicare blinked and paid $74.92. Secondary insurance paid an additional $37.19.

Poor hospital only received $112.11 for that five or so minutes. Slightly more than $22.42 per minute. Another killing?

David Alter
owlbeara@comcast.net