Warning: UCSD Hospital Overcharges
I wanted to warn people about an inconspicuous overcharge I caught after surgery at UCSD and how you can avoid it.
They billed me an extra $4k in operating room minutes after I had already been moved to recovery. I only caught it because my husband’s call log shows the exact time they called him to say I was in recovery.
They billed me for 10 extra minutes in the OR after I was already moved to recovery. 10 minute cost breakdown:
OR time: $340/min
Anesthesia monitoring: $75/min
Total extra: $4,150
(25% increase in my total billed amount)
The hospital bills separately for minutes in the recovery room, so I know the recovery room time does not account for the extra 10 minutes in OR time.
While I was in recovery, the staff joked that the surgery only took 5 minutes, so the huge time discrepancy billed stood out. I know they bill for other time in the OR, like prep, but the billed minutes was significantly longer than what was expected.
I’m disputing it now, but I wanted to share this because it’s an easy overcharge to miss. I’m assuming hospitals know most people can’t easily verify OR time.
My advice: Have your post‑surgery contact keep their call logs for a timestamp of when they are told you’re in recovery.