Getting medical treatment

Thanks for sharing Rosalyn. Your experience is a good example why travel medical insurance is a very good idea. Since most reimburse, have a couple credit cards with higher credit limits . Also have medical evac coverage in case the emergency requires an extended hospital stay.

A long wait for somebody coughing up blood with a written diagnosis? Where does this "English speaking" doctor work?

6,000 € is armed robbery.

The best advice is contact your travel insurer first. They will direct you and then you’ll usually be able to get treatment without paying upfront. €6000 seems extremely expensive for European private healthcare that did not involve surgery or an admission.

I can't speak to the costs, since (knock on wood) I've never needed to go to a private Italian hospital. However I hope the OP could clarify a couple of points. As a retired nurse, with time spent working in EDs, I can't imagine a doctor who would recommend that a patient who is coughing up blood go to an urgent care, and not the nearest Emergency Department. And I thought Urgent care clinics were located separately from hospitals.

Of course the take away remains the same: always have medical insurance coverage when travelling. I hope you have fully recovered from your pneumonia Rosalyn. That can really knock you off your feet.

“ I haven’t gotten the bills translated into USD yet; but the big one - - from the hospital- - was around €6000, including 2 hours of doctor time and several tests.”

You should not only translate the Euro amount on the bill into USD, but also the text on the bill itself. €6000 seems like an extremely excessive amount for the treatment you describe you received. It seems like they overcharged you big time. Or is this a typo and did you mean to type €600?

Do you have a private, Medicare supplemental insurance policy? Or other private, US health insurance?

If so, that policy may provide you coverage for your medical expense in Europe. Worth checking.

I also work in a hospital system. I think what the doctor meant is best translated with emergency not urgent care. Urgent care centers, as we intend in the US (basically the ubiquitous doctors clinics where you just walk in) don’t really exist in Italy. The term “ricovero d’urgenza” is not the same as “urgent care” as intended in the US.

I don’t know what they did, but 6,000€ seems excessive unless there was an admission and maybe some surgery. Typically private hospitals in Italy would charge that amount for multiple inpatient stays or for surgeries. The average cost at a private hospital is 600€ to 1400€ a day (the latter in ICU) while more is charged for surgeries.For example I read that a complex laparoscopic cholecystectomy can easily cost over 4,000€ plus the pro fee from the surgeon. In our hospital an uninsured (self pay) patient would be charged at least twice that amount (even after the 50% discount we, as a public hospital, automatically apply to all self pay patients).

I’ve had two experiences with regular emergency room visits in Italy, once for myself and once with a travel companion. My friend had a bad fall and was taken to the ER by ambulance. She also had a CT scan. In both our cases, we had hours long waits, but neither one of us was ever billed anything.