Whooping $83,000 Bill for Scorpion Anti-Venom Drug

A 52-year old woman in Phoenix, Arizona revealed that she has to pay more than $83,000 as hospital bills after being given a scorpion anti-venom drug that costs just over $100 in Mexico. Marcie Edmonds revealed that she was stung by a bark scorpion in her abdomen when she was opening a box of air conditioner filters. She began to suffer symptoms of poisoning within an hour and called on the poison control center after experiencing throat tightness, muscle spasms and difficulty in breathing.

She was advised to go to a hospital to get treated and was given two vials of an anti-venom drug called Anascorp at the Chandler Regional Medical Center. The drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and costs around $3,800 per vial. However when she received her bill for the hospital stay, it amounted to more than $83,000.

Edmonds said that she had spent just over three hours in the hospital and the hospital authorities are not revealing how much they had charged for the two vials. Though her insurance paid out $57, 509 for the hospital costs, she has to pay the remaining $25, 537.

Source-Medindia