UGH! Incompetent Hospitals!

[MoodyBlues]

OMG!! There is a hospital here in RI that must have some of the most incompetent people working for them!!

In December 2002, I had a miscarriage. Then in April 2003 I had a tubal Pregnancy.


Two weeks ago I get a call from a Creditor telling me I OWE on these two hospital bills. Hmmm.. I HAD INSURANCE that covered 100% of BOTH bills, yet this is on my Credit report now!! NO WAY!

I call the insurance company, they NEVER got a claim from the hospital. WHAT? So, I call the hospital.. THEY NEVER SUBMITTED IT!! Yet, I NEVER received a BILL!!

I told them that because of THEIR mistake, I now have 2 bills on my credit report that amount to almost $4,000. Lady NEVER apologized, just said "I'll submit it to the insurance company now. I ask about them being on my credit report, she tells me it is MY responsiblity to talk to them.

I call the creditor and they tell me I have to get proof from the hospital that it was a mistake. I do that and get that all taken care of and OFF my credit report.


TODAY, I get a bill from the hospital for some blood work I had done the beginning of November. I just call the hospital and they NEVER submitted this one to the insurance company. They lady asks me if I even HAVE insurance. I tell her (In a not so nice tone) "It is ON the bill that you sent me, in BOLD letter 'BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD', along with my policy number". Her response "OH, we never submitted it, but I will do that now".

Again, I ask her if this was submitted to a creditor.. and guess what? IT WAS!! UGH!

I am so livid! So, now I have to wait to see what creditor is going to call me on this bill, so I can tell them it is taken care of, that the hospital NEVER submitted it to the insurance company, therefore, it should NOT be on my credit report.

I am so mad because this could be messing up my credit report to NO end. NEVER have I had a credit problem... now this is the 3rd hospital bill submitted to a creditor within 2 months. NONE was my fault, but the fault of the hospital because they can NOT do their jobs right by submitting a claim to an insurance company.

Not ONE apology did I receive from this hospital. Thankfully we don't live remotely close to this hospital anymore, so I won't have to go there and possibly yet again, get screwed by their billing department.

Has anyone else ever had something like this happen to them before?

If you are still with me.. thanks for listening!

Jessie!

[feliciac]

If the hospitals won't take this off your credit, you can add comments to your credit report. Just call the credit reporting companies they are using and ask about it. It's free and it might help until you can get this all straightened out.

[MoodyBlues]

thanks! I didn't know I could do that. I will be checking into that.

The first two are suppose to be getting off of there, but I was told it could take up to 6 months before it gets completely off. I had to get a paper from the hospital saying they were submitting it TO the insurance company, then I have to get one FROM the insurance company saying they GOT it, and another one from the hospital once the insurance pays it. UGH!

It's like one big run around just because someone in the billing department got lazy.

[schsa]

Every 6 months I have blood work at my doctor's office. Every six months, the lab sends me the bill. The first time, I filled out all of the information about my insurance and sent it back to them. The second time they sent the same bill, I filled it out and sent it back to them. The third time I grabbed a red Flair pen and wrote a very nasty note to them. Finally they send me a note that my insurance has paid.

Six months later I have blood work and I go through the dance again. But this time I stopped at letter 2 and wrote a nasty letter.

This time, I wrote back on the first letter. I am so tired of these people. You would think that they would hire literate people but I think that they prefer to find those who cannot read so that they can depend on the computers just to generate bills and never send them to the right place. It's not like my insurance has change in the last three years!

[AngelGrim]

I think I would contact someone above that womans head in the hospital and tell them what is going on and that your going to find out how many other people are having that happen to them, I had the same thing just this last week, and if I would have paid they would have gotten a double payment as my insurance was billed and DID pay also. I swear it is a conspiracy haha. Good luck on your problem.

[okie]

You can dispute things on your credit report through the credit reporting agency that the bill on is on and it might get removed.The company has 30 days to dispute.

[Dawnathon]

I understand your frustration, I am going through something very similar as my insurance company and the hospital are fighting about amounts to pay and meanwhile the hospital gave the bill to a creditor and now it's on my report. There's something really wrong with this process, must happen to lots of people.

Dawnathon

[JENNIFERCATLADY]

It's not just you hon. When my Dad died mom received a bill from the hospital so she paid it. Six months later she received another bill from the hospital which she paid again. 4 months after that she received ANOTHER bill from the hospital. Well this time time she double checked everything and guess what!? She paid the same bill 2 times and the insurance company paid it once!!! Needless to say she went straight to the administrator's office. I'm surprised that they didn't call security on her! Needless to say within 3 hours she had a check AND a letter of apology from the hospital. Good luck with everything.

[heather074]

Moodyblues....I can see whrere that is fustrating. As an Insurance person in a medical office I can not immagine how these this are a pure accident that is deffinatly some not doing their job they are losing revenue for the hospital as well as fustrating patients. I would do several things first write a letter of complaint to the hospital then to the attorney general's office. This may have been a result of the bad employee that is no longer employeed (I hope for the hospital)but anyone who is involved in costumer service knows you appoligize no matter what even if it was not your fault. Don't let it rest...good luck on the fight!

[Kelsey1224]

Call the hospital and ask to speak to the hospital administrator. Keep leaving messages until he/she speaks with you. Be irate. The squeaky wheel get's oiled.

I would demand that they contact the credit agencies and get these notations removed from your record.

[Dizzyontheweb]

schsa: Would that lab be Labcorp? they are the worst. They did this to me a lot.

I just got off the phone with our doc's billing office (another state)They had said we owed a lot $9.96 or so. We got a collection agency letter. Might not be a lot but I will not turn over $ unless i am sure why. They said it was owed from Feb 2003. I called and asked how as we had been told we owed a lot in Sept and had paid 500 then and 300 the next month. We have insurance that pays 90%. After they cked the account, it turns out they owed US $128 in overpayment. They said they would call off the collections. A few weeks later we get anither collection letter for $300. dr office said they would fix it.
Guess what! I got another collection agency letter yesterday for the same $300. I am so mad.
I had to take daughter to doc today. the receptionist asked if the collection problem was cleared up. I said yes and explained, she goes hmmm.
it is even worse with my bill as I have our state's medicaid as well as blue cross. So i never owe anything though they try to charge me. Actually told me I had to call them each month to tell them i have 2nd ins. My ins suggested to change dr's, but it is open on weekends and no appts.

[MoodyBlues]

thanks for the replies. I finally ended up called the hospital Admin office and talking to them because I received a "Hand delivered" letter last friday saying they were taking me to court over this. I asked the Hospital Admin When would be a good time to come in and talk to them. I went in yesterday. I had everything from the insurance office, the names of everyone I have ever spoke to about this from the hospital, the creditor letters, PLUS the letter I recieved about the court date.

I told them they had 24 hours to get this fixed or I was going to be contacting the local news station over this because this was going to far for me. Today I got a phone call from the Admin and she said everything "should" be taken care of. I told her "should be" is not good enough. That this has caused a lot of stress that could have been avoided in the beginning if someone had did their job.

Anyway, by 5pm, she called again and said everything was corrected, that it was not on my credit report anymore and it was IN their system that they were NOT to call me OR bill me again over this. I had her FAX a copy of of my billing information and proof that it was taken care of.. to my husband at his office. This way I have proof if I ever have any more troubles over this.


Thanks everyone for the advice and letting me know I had a right to be upset over this. I am glad I didn't give in over this. HOPEFULLY this will be the end of it.