Father finds $9,000 worth of errors in hospital bill

[donheld]

DENVER - It wasn't that Will Schafer didn't feel grateful for the care his son received during a short stay in The Children's Hospital. Yet looking at the bill, Schafer recalls, he felt sick.


Then he says he felt angry.

"I get a bill and it's $21,000," said the 46-year-old sales manager for Transwest Trucks in Commerce City, whose medical insurance required he pay 20 percent, or $4,000. "There was no surgery. There were no broken bones. … So I'm going, 'How can this be?'"

It took weeks for the Schafers to sort through the bills from their son, Michael's, hospital stay, but in the end, they found $9,000 worth of accounting errors. Their bill was adjusted, but it's a cautionary tale that health care consumer advocates say others should heed.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=69081


Double check those bills.

[Canuckistanian]

1. Bartcop's Law #2

Any time a person or entity makes a "mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket,
expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again.

[trotsky]

3. And the genius of the man with a 64 IQ is proven again and again.

So absolutely true.

[indepat]

7. The more shit flung on the wall, the more that sticks

[Skittles]

22. indicating it is outright f***ing fraud

these hospitals need to be brought to court

[woodsprite]

2. Another way they do it is send a statement with

"Do Not Pay" printed so faintly as a background behind the text, that it's hard to read for most people, but especially the elderly. We saw alot of that when Dad was undergoing cancer treatments and testing. It was ridiculous! Even someone with good eyesight that read the whole thing had a hard time telling it wasn't really a bill - just a statement of what was billed to insurance. I'm sure if they got paid double, you wouldn't get a statement showing a $2K credit or whatever you paid over and above insurance.

[Sweet Freedom]

4. They also send co-pay notices.

Hospitals will computer-generate co-pay collection letters and just send them to everyone, regardless if you owe the co-pay or not. Wonder how much money they make off of that?

[uppityperson]

19. I went round and round with UW med clinic over co-pays

I made 2 visits, did my co-pays at the time like I always do. I got a bill later for a co-pay, thought I might have forgotten so paid it. Next month I got a bill for the co-pay. I figured the check crossed in the mail so didn't pay it. Again. Next month, a bill along with a note that it was going to collections. So I got on the phone and called, waited and listened to country western music. I talked with a couple people, everyone wanted to know exactly whom I gave the check to. I told them the office, they demanded to know which person. Now, this is a BIG university med clinic. How the heck would I remember exactly whom 5 months later and what did that have to do with anything.

I paid my bank to get copies of the deposited checks and received, yes, another bill. I was tempted to give them another co-pay (already gave them 3 for 2 visits) just to get them off my back but I perservered and finally they sent me a bill saying I owed zero. No, they owed me the extra co-pay. The billing office told me they would keep that so that I would not have to pay at my next visit.

The visits were for a specialist whom I was not going to see again.

I finally got my 10 bucks back.

[youthere]

5. I have never received a completely accurate hospital bill...

I've had three kids...and all the billing for each of the three births were incorrect. Between my husband, myself and my three kids we've had a total of nine surgeries and found errors on all the billings for those. I think the most outrageous was when I was billed for amoxicillin for my youngest child when she had her tonsils removed. I told them that my child did not receive amoxicillin and they argued with me. I told them if they administered amoxicillin to my child they should prepare to be sued because she is highly allergic to it (as they will see from the warnings displayed on her medical chart and the medalert bracelet she wears at all times) and they could have killed her. They promptly removed the charges. ALWAYS check your hospital bill and demand an itemization.

[Uben]

6. Here's the kicker!

I broke a leg a couple of years ago, had arthroscopic surgery to repair, two screws in tibia. Total bill $40,000. WTF! My insurance has a $5,000 deductible and 50% of the next $10,000, so the most I can be out is $10,000. So why do I care?

I get the statement of charges to the ins. co, and it lists a physicians aide, who was in the surgery room, as a surgeon! Of course they tried to charge about $5,000 for that. I called my ins. co. and told them this guy is not a surgeon, he is a physician's assistant, training to be a surgeon. They tell me that is between me and the hospital, because they do not dispute hospital billings! WTF?

Well, I call the hospital and threaten to sue if they do not remove the charges. Of course, when they saw I was serious, they did. This took hours on the phone. I wonder how many billions are lost on those who do not question their bills, or just take he hospital word for the charges?

[bleedingheart]

12. or the folks who don't have the time or won't make the time to argue the bill

I think half the time...people are so trusting that they don't realize they are being cheated.

[Horse with no Name]

8. I had day surgery and was admitted postoperatively.

I was in the hospital for less than 24 hours. I received my bill. It was close to $50k.
I asked for an itemized statement.
There were things that I KNEW that I didn't utilize.
I guess it didn't help that this company was HCA...

[bleedingheart]

9. I keep telling people this.."Get the itemized bill"

I don't give a shit who you get work done by...get it itemized...

I worked in the medical industry for five long years...there are all kinds of tricks and people get cheated all the time...

[gollygee]

10. There's one answer to why the health care industry doesn't want

a single-payer government-controlled system.

[Czolgosz]

11. K & R # 5

[qanda]

13. I just had a procedure called hysteroscopy in a doctor's office yesterday

I had been putting it on hold (suffering) for months because I was supposed to have it in a hospital setting and it was going to cost over $5000. My primary doctor found another doctor who could do it in their office and it ended up costing me $170. I'm very grateful because there was no way I was going to be able to pay over $5000 as I still owe close to $10,000 from hospital bills I incurred last year-- maybe I should go over them again.

Something has to be done about health care in our country!

[mopinko]

15. i would do it now.

i finally got them to drop a bill that had been paid, but came back from the dead every few months, for a year and a half. if they can do it so can you.

my favorite was the hospital where i went when i had a miscarriage, nearly bled to death, and they charged me for all the needles and lines for the 4 unsuccessful attempts to start an IV. they tried pretty hard to get me to pay, turned it over to collections, i told them, make my day, make me get a lawyer. i told them the whole story, including the part where i almost died because the resident wouldn't get out of bed. the collection guys gave up after that.

[raccoon]

14. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops! K&R. nt

[Golden Raisin]

16. WHEN are our Congresspeople

going to come to grips with the disaster that is medical coverage in this country? Big Pharma runs rampant. Everyone has a nightmare story about Hospital's overcharging. The Insurance Companies are horrendous and deliberately make every document as obscure and confusing as possible. Every aspect of the "system" is dysfunctional, wasteful and disgraceful. My question is rhetorical because I know the Congresspeople have voted themselves and their families gold-plated medical coverage and they never have to experience the reality, expense and frustration level of the average American citizen. So I seriously doubt anything will change.

[donheld]

21. "WHEN are our Congresspeople?"

When they aren't getting kickbacks for supporting it.

[ThomCat]

17. My favorite.

$10 for a "mucous collection device." That's right, a tissue. x(

[meldroc]

18. Even the legitimately charged items are ridiculously expensive.

The article mentions a single ibuprofen pill billed for $5.69, and a single capsule of Clindamycin for $23.59 (which the patient's father picked up at the local pharmacy for less than $2 per pill.)

When my sister had a baby, she and her husband saw hospital bills that charged $50 for a Tylenol, $10 for a bag of ice.

It's completely outrageous and out of control.

Why do they do this? Because they can.

[Lorien]

20. A friend noticed a $12 charge PER Q-tip on his bill

of course he challenged the hospital and had many of the charges reduced or dropped. It does indeed pay to check those bills!