Carolinas Medical Center
Harassment by hospital due to mistake caused by hospital

We took my son to Carolinas Medical Center on 04/09/09 to have a vagus nerve stimulator implanted. A few months later, we started to receive phone calls and letters from the hospital advising us that insurance had refused to pay and that we were responsible. My husband investigated and was finally able to find out that the hospital billing department had coded the procedure wrong. This bill had been through their denial department three times and no-one working there had been able to find the reason for nonpayment. My husband called the billing department of the hospital and told them that they had coded the procedure wrong and, when he tried to give them the correct code, was told, "There is nothing that we can do. You signed that piece of paper saying that you would pay if insurance did, didn't you?" I finally had had enough and tried to speak with the head honcho at the hospital, but was only allowed to speak with one of her patsies, who, at that time, assured me that the problem would be taken care of. We received another bill one week ago for $31,000, with the hospital stating that insurance still would not pay and that they wanted their money in a week. Two days ago, we received a bill from Carolinas Medical Center for $5,300 for another procedure done at that hospital. I called the insurance company and was told that the bill had been paid in full at $7,700, the price negotiated between the insurance company and the hospital. The hospital, though, tried to get that monetary difference of $5,300 from us. When my husband called the head of billing at Carolinas Medical Center, he was told that they sue people for nonpayment.

We have had to go to this hospital three times and EVERY SINGLE TIME they have made mistakes in billing/filing the claim and then come after us.

It is more than evident to me that the people handling the billing department are incompetent and are trying to make us, the patient, pay for mistakes made within their own organization.

I have tried to get assistance with this problem from my senators and representatives on both the federal and state level without success. I have called all federal and state organizations that I could find to get their assistance, to no avail. I even tried to get Legal Aid to help us, but were told they don't handle these type of things. Where are the average Joes of this country to go to get help against the big, rich corporations who have the money to pay for high-priced lawyers for as long as the process takes??!!!

Company: Carolinas Medical Center
Country: USA

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