My daughter has lived year-round in Chilmark for several years and does whatever it takes to pay your bills here: farming, landscaping, scalloping. Last autumn she believed she might have Lyme from a tick bite and went to the hospital after obtaining a referral from her still off-Island primary care physician. Not knowing exactly where to go, she entered the ER to inquire. A physician saw her and immediately prescribed two doxycycline tablets, with no lab tests, and sent her on her way. All fine and good, until she received a bill for $680 from her insurance deductible. Since she is still young enough to be covered by my group insurance, I played an active role in attempting to help her resolve this injustice.

After speaking with the billing agency and then four Martha’s Vineyard Hospital employees over a period of several months, the best resolution we received was reducing the bill to $500 and setting up a payment plan. “We can’t turn anyone away once they enter the door,” I was told. “We have no other option,” another explained to me. “Those are the rules. I can’t do anything more about it.”

Of course she is willing to pay for the medication and the doctor’s exorbitant fee. But then to be hit with an ER visit charge on top of that goes beyond what I consider fair play. If this is how they treat those in their own Island community, I can only imagine what they do to the summer folks, who may actually be able to afford whatever they demand.

Darrell King
Belmont