For sure! It was definitely soul crushing, watching what very little hope people had being quashed by the ridiculousness that is US healthcare system. There were many times where we’d call to collect from patients and we’d speak with loved ones who told us that the patient ended up killing themselves shortly after discharge.

What’s even more infuriating is that my coworkers and I made about $16/hr while our CEO raked in $150k+ a year.

For some of them, I was able to sign them up for Medicaid, so their stay could be covered. Lots of people set up payment plans. For the people who didn’t/couldn’t pay, we would send them to collections. My hospital very, very rarely wrote anyone off. IIRC the cost for one night without insurance was around $4k.

Doctor doesn’t tell people what they owe, it’s usually the billing department or their office manager who does (at least in the US)

Source: This was my job after college. I worked for a mental hospital, and it was my job to tell people how much their hospital stay was going to cost. A lot of the time, these patients were hospitalized because they’ve tried to commit suicide. So glad I don’t work there anymore.