California Family Hit With $297K Bill For Toddler’s Snake Bite Treated With Antivenom That Reportedly Costs $9 To Make

A California family received a $297,461 medical bill for treatment after their toddler was bitten by a rattlesnake in their backyard in San Diego. Since treatment, they are learning firsthand how a snake bite can lead to questions about the antivenom and medical care industry that have no straight forward answers.

The toddler was bitten on his right hand by a rattlesnake near the family’s fire pit in the backyard. All in, treatment included two ambulance rides, an ER visit, several days in the Pediatric ICU, and antivenom treatment.

How Much Snakebite Treatment Costs In The United States

According to KFF Health News who reported on this story recently, out of the $297,461 final tally, the antivenom accounted for $213,278.80 of that bill. Meaning the multiple days spent in the hospital, all of the other care, the ambulance rides, totaled to $84,182.20 of the final bill.

Sadly, outrageous bills for snake bites aren’t that uncommon as another family received a bill for $244,995 two years ago in a similar incident.

Antivenom is expensive, right? Well, yes and no. Their report reveals that all of the numbers used on these bills are completely arbitrary as different people pay different amounts, and they also determined that manufacturing the antivenom only costs $9 to make each vial using the age old method of taking a snake and milking its venom.

Between two facilities, the toddler was treated with 30 vials of Anavip antivenom. He received 10 vials from Palomar at a cost of $9,574.60 per vial and 20 vials at the second hospital at a cost of $5,876.64 per vial. In total, the family was charged $95,746 by the first hospital and $117,532.80 by the second hospital.

KFF’s report found that, on average, a snake bite victim receives 18 vials of antivenom so the 30 vials isn’t an extraordinary amount. They also note that the medical team was unable to insert the IV and had to resort to a rare method of administering antivenom that delivers it straight into the bone marrow.

Again, all of that sounds expensive. As an American I’m accustomed to any form of medical care being expensive… But this is the part from KFF’s report that made my jaw drop:

Using cost data collected from factory supervisors, animal managers, hospital pharmacists and other sources, Boyer developed a model for a hypothetical antivenom, at a final cost of $14,624 per vial. She found the cost of venom, included in that total, was just 2 cents. Manufacturing accounted for $9 of the $14,624 total. More than 70% of the price tag — $10,250 — is attributable to hospital markups, her research showed.

According to the initial report, Anavip had a retail price of $1,220 per vial when it debuted on the market. So how on earth is this family who needed it as a life-saving procedure for a toddler getting charged nearly 10x of the retail price? That’s something a lot of people are wondering.

Given the tens of millions of readers that see BroBible articles each month I’d suspect that at least one of you if not more have experienced these eye-popping bills in the past. The CDC says that on average between 7,000 to 8,000 Americans are bitten by venomous snakes each year and of those about 5 die from the bites each year.

Ed Cara on Gizmodo also recently covered this story. He found that Medicare tends to pay just $2,000 on average for Anavip antivenom to treat snake bites.

What Did The Family End Up Paying For Treatment?

Ultimately, when the family received the asinine medical bill for $297,461.80 the proverbial alarms were sounded and red flags went up. They immediately contacted their insurance company who began to negotiate on their behalf.

Of the total $297,461.80, they were asked to pay their total insurance deductible of $7,200 and an additional $11,300 for medical care, according to Gizmodo. So that’s $18,500 because a toddler got bitten by a venomous rattlesnake in his own backyard. Insane.