Hospital bill for ride home liable to create new emergency

On Aug. 14, Bernie Hague/CdA was taken by ambulance to Kootenai Medical Center with breathing problems, a distance of about two miles. He was at the hospital for 90 minutes to two hours before he was released. At first, he tried to call his wife to pick him up. But she wasn’t available. Then, he was about to call Sunset Taxi when a hospital tech said he would ask a fireman to take him home. A taxi ride home would have cost about $6, Bernie estimates. The short hop with the fireman cost $343. In a letter, Bernie told Huckleberries: “I later got a notice from my Blue Cross Insurance saying I didn’t get prior authorization, so they were denying the $343 bill. Blue Cross said it was a new billing for the same service they had just paid $527. I asked Kootenai Medical Center what it was for and they said for the two-mile ride home.” Concludes Bernie: “I’m not shocked, but bewildered and sad. How is this possible if I used a service I didn’t ask for but was offered by a medical tech?” Be careful out there.

“In a new Huckleberries Online feature, “The Way We Were,” I ask readers to identify old photos of area people. On Thursday, I posted a 1972 Oregonian photo of a well-known local man with actress Raquel Welch. He was paid $40 per day to play a neighborhood kid in the “Kansas City Bomber” movie and a stand-in for Welch’s film son. That’s how he spent three or four days hanging out with Welch’s movie daughter, actress Jodie Foster. I bet you didn’t know that ex-CdA Press reporter Keith Erickson ran with the stars as a Beatle-mopped kid.

“Also, at Huckleberries Online, I conduct a daily poll. Last week, I asked cyber readers to choose their favorite abbreviation for Coeur d’Alene: CDA, CdA, Cd’A or Cda? And the winner is? CDA. See the fun you miss by not tuning into Huckleberries Online?