Abiding by the Law

Some of you faithful readers may remember the post from last fall where I recounted our trip to the hospital here in Vienna. Michael and I both felt the experience was a waste since the doctor prescribed a medicine that we actually had in our cabinet but were not aware. However, since Michael had NOT been feeling well, I'm glad that we went. Anyway, I'll move right along with the point of this picture-less post.

The doctor jokingly mentioned the bills might not come while we were still living here. Well, he was wrong. To be quite honest, the first notice (yes, we received more than one) came in December right before we were heading home. The online banking here in Austria allows you to wire money for anything...including hospital bills. Since we weren't exactly sure what to do, we decided to let it be until we returned. A couple months later, the next round of bills came. Let's keep in mind that Michael's total waiting/being seen by the doctor time amounted to 5 hours, with 25 min of doctor time. With that said, you might understand why I was astounded to see the bills total close to $600 US dollars. Seriously? Not to mention the first doctor didn't speak English.

Once again, we didn't throw the bills away but merely chose not to act on them. One other detail to remember is that the only personal information the hospital took was a name and address here in Vienna. No passport number. No nothing. At this point, it might sound like we were trying to evade the law. I won't lie and say it didn't cross my mind, but when a hospital representative came knocking at our door yesterday morning asking for the money, we decided that now would be the best time to take care of those bills! Michael had one of his classmates call and get the specific details for what we needed to do, and, as of yesterday afternoon we are no longer indebted to the Austrian Healthcare system. Don't worry, we had to pay a late fee of $15 as well. Lesson learned.