Woman bitten by stray kitten billed by hospital for $48K: ‘My funeral would have been cheaper'
(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
FOX NEWS - A wildlife biologist in Florida was slammed with a nearly $50,000 medical bill after she was bitten by a stray kitten.
Jeannette Parker, 44, told Kaiser Health News (KHN) she noticed an emaciated black kitten on a road just outside Florida’s Everglades National Park in September. Feeling sorry for the sickly-looking feline, Parker offered it some tuna she had in her car.
But the kitten didn’t take kindly to Parker, literally biting the hand that fed it.
“It broke my skin with his teeth,” she said.
Worried the cat may have infected her with rabies, she drove to the health department near her home in the Florida Keys, but it was closed. So, the biologist decided to go to Mariners Hospital, where she was treated in the emergency room and received two types of injections and an antibiotic for the bite.
All was well — until Parker was billed by the hospital for $48,512.
The majority of the cost — $46,422 — was for one preventative medication known as rabies immune globulin, which, according to KHN, is “ an antibody that kick-starts the immune system to provide protection from the virus until the vaccine kicks in.” Parker was administered 12 milliliters of rabies immune globulin.
Shocked, Parker began researching the typical cost of the medication.
"I saw that immune globulin was expensive, but it wasn't that expensive," she said. "I sat on it for a while because I was upset. Finally, I went by the hospital to confirm, and they said, 'Yes, that is right.'"
The average cost of rabies immune globulin, according to KHN, is $361.26 per milliliter. Parker received a 12-millimeter dose, so the cost of the medication would presumably have been $4,335.
But at the time Parker was treated, the $46,422 she was charged “reflected list prices the hospital had in place on Sept. 22, 2018,” which is when she received treatment, Dori Robau Alvarez, a spokesperson for Baptist Health, which Mariners Hospital is a part of, told KHN.
The news outlet estimated that the hospital was billing $7,737 per 2-milliliter dose at the time Parker was treated.