Sports Injury Costs Add Up

This past summer, my daughter twisted her ankle – not once but twice. During volleyball tryout season, she was searching for a new club. She was going to move down to her age group, and in Southern California, a volleyball mecca, this can bring many options. So, we were making the rounds to the local clubs’ tryouts.

Then it happened.

She was walking backward, moving into position, and she fell to the ground.

This was the beginning of two months of X-rays, MRIs, Physical Therapy, and doctor’s appointments as we tried to prepare her for another tryout and the fall volleyball season.  Initially, the injury didn’t seem bad, and she was cleared to play after only ten days. But her first time back on the court, oops, she did it again. The ankle wasn’t fully healed, and she sustained more damage. It turned out to be a pretty bad bone bruise. She spent two critical months – beach volleyball season and the start of high school season – on the sidelines and in and out of doctor’s appointments.

Below is a list of the expenses and appointments incurred throughout the ordeal.

Since we have an HMO and felt we needed more time to wait for referrals, we went to specialists out of our network. Even if we could have gotten quick referrals, we would have opted for the ankle specialists.

Youth sports injuries are so prevalent in today’s landscape; according to UC Irvine School of Medicine, more than 3.5 million children ages 14 and younger get hurt annually playing sports or participating in recreational activities. I have nursed all of my kids time and time again through severe and less serious injuries. Having pomi -– “Peace of Mind Insurance” could have done just that, helped me to stress less and get my kids the care they need to get back on the court for much less money than I ended up paying. Pomi is a new youth sports accident insurance policy that supplements your primary health insurance. It can help pay for what your primary health care doesn’t cover – and that can add up!

As you can see from this chart, here is a list of all the expenses I had to pay because of my daughter’s injury. The medical expense added up to over $1800 and that was after my primary health insurance paid some so I was on the hook to pay that. But with a pomi accident insurance policy, that $1800 could have been covered – saving me big time!

And, as we know, because injuries usually lead to missed playing time, we also were out the $618 we paid for her to attend a recruiting camp. But, pomi’s working on a new product that can help parents recoup their registration costs if your child can’t complete a season due to injury or illness. How cool is that!

In the meantime, know that a pomi accident policy is now available for your child and, as I’ve explained, it can help save you up to $10,000 in medical expenses. I wish I would have known about it sooner.

Doctor Visit $100

Treatment $375

Braces $82

Doctor Visit (2nd opinion ) $300

MRI $350

Physical Therapy $600

Camp $618 (could no longer attend due to injury)