Because the hospital holds the patient responsible for payment of the bills, normal procedure. In fact we also received a Court issued Caveat against our property or any compensation received by us, to ensure payment of the account. This again is normal U.S. procedure. The patient receives the treatment, it doesn't matter the circumstances as to how/why the patient was admitted. This is no reflection upon the Dallas Methodist Hospital. The staff and the facilities there are magnificent - after spending 3 weeks there I know. Their local patients are normally admitted for 1-2 days, have their operation and are sent home to recuperate. I was there for 3 weeks because the operation could not be carried out immediately until the swelling went down and then had to remain there for another 2 weeks before being fit to fly home. The hospital even includes its own hotel accommodation that facilitated my wife being able to stay there at a greatly reduced rate as compared with a city hotel rate.
Upon our return to the hospital in 2017, we were greeted by about 20 of the staff with whom I had come into contact with, including the head of the Trauma Dept. Their PR Manager also asked me to do an interview for publication the hospital's quarterly, glossy magazine and have even prepared a 4 minute youtube video for inclusion on their website, including views of the accident scene, the high speed ambulance ride to hospital and the interview.
QBE Travel Insurance were also great, paying all the bills without a problem. The U.S. medical system is very strange to us. You receive a huge bill and then your insurance company negotiates a better deal. That is what happened in my case. Because DART is a government operation, any compensation they are required to pay is limited to $100,000. The insurance company and their U.S. agent are in a much better position to do the negotiating than an Australian individual. The individual can then hire their own lawyer (has to be one registered to appear in a Texan court) to negotiate a settlement between the bus company as to what they will pay and what amount the insurance company will accept as subrogation (a refund of their costs from the policy holder). His fee is of course also negotiable. We were very lucky to find a very successful lawyer in Dallas who ensured the hospital, the insurance company, himself and myself all received acceptable compensation.
