US$1.1 Million - Hospital Bill For Covid-19 Treatment

After spending months hospitalized for COVID-19 at Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah, Washington, Michael Flor, 70, says that he knew his stay would be pricey. He’d spent 62 days in an intensive care unit, including weeks in an induced coma, and come so close to death that his family had called to say goodbye. But he says it was still “heart-stopping” to read the hospital’s bill — for $1.1 million.

“I had to look at it a number of times… to see if I was seeing it right,” Flor, a Seattle resident, tells.

The 181-page bill included almost 3,000 itemized charges. His room in the intensive care unit alone had cost about $9,700 a day. The total cost of his treatment will likely be higher, because the bill does not include multiple items, including fees for his skilled nursing facility, dialysis and the doctors who treated him.

He may not ultimately need to pay for much of his treatment. He’s insured by Medicare and Medicare Advantage through Kaiser Permanente. The health care company has announced that it will waive most out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 patients through 2020.

Dr. Anne Lipke, a pulmonary and critical-care specialist at Swedish, said that there was a moment when she was surprised that Flor made it through a weekend. “He was as sick as you can get, with basically every organ system shutting down,” says Lipke.