hospital billing vent (long)

[tater bug]

Last September I had some surgery done. The hospital staff was great, not a sour person in the bunch! The bill finally arrives early November and it is for more than I was told it would be. No problem, I'll just call billing and find out why. It took 3 days for someone to actually answer the phone and the best they can do is send me an itemized statement. Fine, I was going to ask for one anyway. One week later the statement finally arrives. It doesn't help one iota. Okay, I'll call back and see if someone else can help me. 3 weeks and lots of voicemails later (that is, when someone answered the phone) I still haven't talked to ANYONE about my bill. In the meantime, it is now December. I would like to pay the bill but not without knowing what the "extra" charge is for. Mid-December gets here and we get another bill from the hospital. Fine, but I'm not paying it until I speak to someone. More voicemails. FINALLY a warm body gets on the phone and tells me that the extra charge is because I requested a private room. Okay, I did request that, but when I was placed in a room I was told that there would be no charge because 1) it was the only room available and 2) I was on a floor that had nothing but private rooms. This is mentioned to the billing person and they want to argue about it. They say I was on a floor with semi-private rooms and because that is what I requested I would have to pay the extra amount. Fine, whatever, I roll over and take it even though it burns me up to write the check for the full amount. The check is in the mail the VERY NEXT DAY after getting an answer to my question. I get home from work Friday and there is a voice mail from billing saying that I need to call them re: my account. Monday there is a nasty letter in my mail box re: my account and a sentence that reads, " As a point of information, a discount is available to you if you are able to pay in full." Cool. Maybe there is hope for this whole situation yet. Yeah, right. After 3 more voicemails I finally talk to the person who signed the letter. A discount would have been available had I checked with them before paying. Excuse me?!?!?! Because I have already paid and because the account was so delinquent (I tried to get up with someone for a month!!!) the discount is not available to me. Well, the why in the hell did you even mention the discount??? Because you can't return calls or even answer the phone half the time and because I paid the bill in full before your stupid letter goes out you are punishing me? If I had known how this was going to turn out I would have paid them $1 month until it was paid!!!!!!! (not really, but it felt good saying that!)

Grrrrrrrr.

 

[nancy679]

I sympathize with you. I hate having to call any billing place. I have a bill from a radiologist for my DH, that I have to pay in full because our insurance says that they are the secondary insurance. Well,DH is self employed and I can assure you that we only have ONE insurance and pay plenty for it. And they wont discuss the situation with me because the insurance is in his name. So I have been putting it off because I just hate dealing with it. Double GRRR!!!

 

[EROS]

One of the ONLY good reasons to be in a HMO is that you avoid the pain in the butt of inpatient stay billing . I had some major neurosurgery 3 years ago and never received a bill from the hospital ........

 

[Mom2Em]

I work in a the billing department of a hospital... I know, always ask for an itemized bill... ... even then, if you did not sign a "private room card" (or what other term they give it), I would fight it for a discount... but don't expect to see the check for awhile. It is not unusual for a hospital to offer a
"discount"/compromise to get their bills paid... I am just sorry that it wasn't offered to you on the phone.