An Australian tourist was slapped with a massive $2,500AUD (£1,300) hospital bill after suffering a broken fingernail while on holiday in Hawaii.
Rachael Minaway, 32, had only just arrived in Honolulu when her finger was caught in the glove box of a rental car, leaving her nail painfully split in two.
Initially brushing off it off as a minor injury, Rachael says she was left with with little option but to visit a medical centre when her finger began to go numb.
Google Maps pointed her in the direction of the closest hospital emergency room where she sought treatment.
“At that point my hand was really hurting, and we thought, OK, they’ll just tell us what to do.
"We just wanted to get back to our trip. And I was wasting my friend’s time for a fingernail, it was so silly.”
A doctor at the hospital said it would be best to remove Ms Minaway’s fingernail under anaesthetic, a suggestion which she agreed to.
After a 30-minute consultation, Rachael then made her way to reception where she was handed the eye-watering medical bill for her treatment.
The hospital demanded that she fork out $1,200AUD upfront - and allegedly would not let her leave until the amount was paid.
“I had to pay it on the spot,” she told News.com.au . “I told them we’d only just landed, I hadn’t even checked in my luggage at the hotel.
"But they wouldn’t let us leave without paying it.”
Thankfully, she had taken out holiday cover for her trip and she was reimbursed by her insurer for the costs.
But that was not the end of the nightmare.
After returning home to Sydney, Rachael was inundated with numerous invoices from the hospital which demanded she pay $2,500 in total - just for a broken nail.
The mum-of-one is an avid social media user and shares of her exotic travels abroad on her Instagram account, but says she has never faced a situation like this before.
“It was pretty upsetting. I was six months pregnant at that point, and I kept thinking, imagine if didn’t have insurance and actually had to pay for all this myself.”
“I’d heard about how in America they don’t have Medicare like us, but I never expected (the cost) to be this outrageous for something this tiny,” she said.
Her insurer, 1Cover, says examples of American hospitals being pushy an aggressive about recovering their sky-high medical costs are not rare.
Spokesperson Richard Warburton said: “Recently, we had another customer who faced costs of $2600AUD for a splinter she removed in the US. She was harassed continuously for this tiny injury once she got back to Australia,” he said.
“A recent customer of ours saw the doctor for an uncomplicated case of tonsillitis. She was billed $10,000AUD, and they didn’t even take out the tonsils.
“Another patient had some nausea and vomiting over 24 hours. She was completely fine but was charged $28,000AUD.
“Sometimes the hospital will contact their travel insurer demanding payment for a customer. But sometimes they’ll contact the customer directly, and this is scary and intimidating.”
