Odd of an ER bill in France coming across the Atlantic?

Post date: 2024-11-13 04:30:24

I had a minor stumble in Paris last month and ended up visiting an urgent care. They took me in and patched me up and sent me on my way. What are the odds a bill will eventually find its way across the Atlantic to me in the US?

I was on a scooter tour of the Champs Elysees when I took a tumble and my glasses took a chunk out of my eyebrow. I was the only person on the tour, so the tour operator called to figure out which hospital to take me to and we scooted over. My wife was back in the hotel room setting up a case with our Cigna International SOS health coverage, who reached out to me while I was filling out the paperwork at the intake / waiting room. "Oh no, that is not one of our hospitals, we'll have to do it as a post-service reimbursement, is that OK?" and yeah that was fine. Maybe 10 minutes later they brought me back to triage to make sure I wasn't in acute danger before sending me back to the waiting room. Maybe another 10 minutes later they brought me back to a private room, the doctor looked at me and said "ah yeah, that will need to be closed up, let me bring in another coworker to confirm", and maybe 10 minutes later my eyebrow was glued up and the doctor was escorting me to a discharge waiting room. 2 weeks later the wound is a tiny little scar hiding behind my eyebrow, so well done, doc, and bravo French healthcare for making an urgent care case take maybe an hour, tops?

But while I was checking if I needed to visit anyone to arrange for payment before I left, they seemed to be being mostly polite about the whole concept of paying for health care and just gave me some discharge paperwork which only has the usual privacy policy fine print on it as well as a brief summation of my treatment. They do have my home address from intake, so it's _possible_, but is it actually likely?

I mean I guess the alternative question is how long do I need to stall Cigna's International SOS before the whole thing turns into an amusing story about how I spent a few hours on vacation in the French ER and getting my glasses replaced before I could finish a coffee at the corner cafe.

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