<prompt> Human: Hey all. Having a run-in with an insanely overcharged ER bill and am hoping this is some bad joke or poor form in negligent overcharging. After reading PF it seems this is, sadly, not uncommon. What a country US we live in : I realize some of these cases can be somewhat circumstantial so I will describe what happened during my visit - short story - and the final charges.Six weeks or so ago I visited the ER in the wee hours of the night to check on some diarrhea it was Saturday and I worked Sunday-Wednesday or something along that timeframe...meaning I wouldnt be able to see a doctor until Thursday. I signed in at the ER, was placed in a curtain room, provided a stool sample and had my blood pressure, temperature, and pulse oximetry measured. Waited 60-90 minutes for stool sample result, had blood pressure and pulse oximetry remeasured and was sent home with an unfilled prescription. No X-rays, no CTs, no nothing essentially. Never saw a physician...only a PA for no more than 4-5 minutes.Hospital bills me for three charges: Laboratory, LabBact-Micro, Emergency Room. Lab bills are overpriced but I guess they make sense. However, in addition to double billing me for the stool sample test...they billed be 434.00 for visiting the Emergency Room. I was in the ER for at most 90 minutes and I had vitals recorded twice. Aside from that I submitted insurance and I still owe 434.00 for...I dont even know?Heres the real kicker. The prescription medicine I was given, which was filled and consumed beginning the very next morning, turned out to basically be poison. I took the medicine until Thursday - with no relief of symptoms - so I contacted my PCP on Thursday and he ordered me to retrieve the lab results from the hospital. Low and behold the lab results come back negative and Ive been taking a prescription medicine for something I dont even have...which my doctor suggested is essentially like taking a low dose of poison.So I owe 434.00 for sitting around for 90 minutes in between two curtains, having blood pressure recorded twice, and being advised to take some drugs that turned out to be poison. And the hospital lab never contacted me to alert me or inform me to cancel my prescription consumption.Oh and I have Obamacare with a tax healthcare premium...meaning I am a low income consumer. I dont know if this matters at all, but it seemed like it mightIs it just me or is something wrong here?Any help is greatly appreciatedAssistant: On what grounds should you not have to pay your bill? Being misdiagnosed sucks, ive also had them misdiagnose me and then give me a prescription that made me more ill, but you dont get a discount for that. You can asked for an itemized bill as to what the charges are for after insurance was billed. ER visits are pricey. Human: I dont know. I do not pretend to have any familiarity with the billing system whatsoever.The whole thing seems very odd because, from my end, I had vitals taken twice and sat in a room for 90 minutes while I waiting for a stool sample to be tested. Nothing else happened. I had no fancy tests done. No breathing apparatus.434.00 still seems a tad high. If it came in at like 200.00 I would say, well...its the ER. But 434? Is that really the going rate for the services?If so, is there any way I can have them lower it? As I mentioned in the OP...I have subsidized Obamacare. Its not significant but I clearly am not swimming in earnings...a non-traditional student :  <response>: You should be happy it was only 400. You could have had a real medical emergency and been billed tens of thousands. This sounds like a 400 lesson on how to be adult. 