They likely do not know the price before you get in either. It is going to be a different amount for every person, and varied by insurance. And the companies will make up numbers and try to get as much as they can.

~$16,000 is what it cost me to unwillingly go to a hospital in an ambulance, given an MRI (with my phone, wallet still in my pockets... Thankfully only my head went in I guess) and then released 4 hours later blood still dried on my face and told to see my normal doctor to get the results. Had torn something in my thigh and lost a molar, but neither of those issues were addressed. My buddy picked me up and we were gone.

That was 2016 prices. Young and dumb and made a stupid mistake..

and they won’t tell you the price before you get in.

1. Won't tell you the price
2. Once you get to the hospital, every individual you work with bills you separately
3. The hospital make an effort to bill you before you leave, but that's often not the whole price.
4. Some of them don't even bill you until you've already paid the initial amount and left. Weeks later you can still get bills for hundreds for stupid crap like someone brought you a regular painkiller in a cup but couldn't be bothered to charge you before you left.

Oopsie, this ambulance is out of network