Trauma Activation Fees on an Emergency Room Bill May Surprise Patients

Patients who visit emergency rooms expect to get some kind of bill for their visit. However, many patients receive a surprise emergency room bill after visits, sometimes because of out-of-network insurance fees, but sometimes because of an arbitrary emergency room bill called “trauma activation.”

One young patient’s family was hit with such an emergency room bill. According to Vox, a young boy and his parents visited San Francisco from South Korea in 2016. This child, an eight-month-old named Park J., accidentally fell off a bed in the family’s hotel room.

Park hit his head, but was not knocked unconscious nor was he bleeding.  The family tried to console the baby, but he would not calm down. Not sure of what to do and fearing he might have injuries that they could not see, the parents called emergency services.

An ambulance arrived and took Park and his parents to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. At the hospital, doctors examined the baby and determined that he had simply suffered some bruising on his forehead and nose.

In the hospital, his mother held him while he slept and the hospital provided a bottle of formula for Park. They were released from the hospital after three hours and twenty-two minutes.

Two years later, the family, now back in South Korea, received a surprise emergency room bill for $18,836. A large portion of this emergency room bill, $15,666 was labeled as a “trauma activation fee.” This fee is sometimes known as a “trauma response fee.”

The family told Vox, “It’s a huge amount of money for my family. If my baby got special treatment, okay. That would be okay. But he didn’t. So why should I have to pay the bill? They did nothing for my son.” The family had travel insurance, but they only paid for $5,000.

Eventually, Park’s parents were able to fight the surprise emergency room bill and get it waived by the hospital. But this story is not uncommon. Each year, patients are surprised with emergency room bill statements that don’t seem to equal the care they received at a hospital.

A trauma activation fee is a fee that is applied to an emergency room bill to cover the costs of “activating” a trauma response team at a hospital.

Critics claim that trauma activation fees are often applied arbitrarily and can be in excess of thousands of dollars. Renee Hsia, who is the director of health policy studies in the emergency medicine department at the University of California San Francisco, told Vox, “It’s like the Wild West. Any trauma center can decide what their activation fee is.”

Patients are often left draining their life savings or being unable to pay a large emergency room bill that they did not know they would be receiving.

If you have received an emergency room bill that seems arbitrarily applied or in far excess of the care you were given, or if your emergency room bill was not covered by insurance when you believed that it would be, you may benefit from speaking with an experienced attorney.

An attorney can discuss with you your legal options and help get you the monetary compensation you deserve.

Join a Free Surprise Medical Bill Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were hit with a surprise medical bill from an out-of-network doctor at an in-network hospital, you may be entitled to compensation.

Get a Free Case Evaluation Now