Hospital Bills May Contain Errors
January 10th, 2009
Having medical insurance is no guarantee you won’t be overbilled. Many are finding inaccuracies in the bills they receive from hospitals and caregivers. The problem is less uncommon than one would think. It could be sloppiness or it could mean the right hand isn’t talking to the left hand. Hospital billing procedures often do leave a lot to be desired, since there are so many involved in the patient’s care. But errors do occur, and it is a good idea to do a line by line review of your hospital bill.
One young nurse recently had an eye opening experience as she was reviewing the bills from her husband’s recent hospital stay. It appears he had been scheduled to be released on a particular day, and that wasn’t communicated somehow, causing him to have to stay an extra day. There were excessive charges for administering medication 7 times per day when it was only prescribed 4 times per day. And then there was the charge for $875 for one item that she knew from her hospital work should have only been around $80. Clerical error. By the time she was finished, she had discovered nearly $7000 of incorrect charges.
So when you receive a hospital bill, it is a good idea to sit down and review it very carefully. If you have questions, sit down with your doctor instead of the hospital billing department. The billing department is clerical by nature, and they don’t always have an accurate history of the care that was actually provided. Make sure you ask questions.
If you are unable to find satisfactory answers to your questions, you do have other resources. There are patient advocate groups available to help. And don’t hesitate to contact the insurance commissioner in your state if you are having issues with your insurance company.
Medical insurance is there to protect us in case we need it. And hospital stays are unpleasant enough without having to deal with a bill laden with codes and numbers. The hospital can decypher this for you and they will. We know medical bills can be filled with errors and you should not have to pay for things you did not receive. So do your homework, put a little effort into it, and you’ll find that the resolution of the errors will work out as it should.
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I literally received a bill for nasal surgery completed at the end of January 2009 that totaled $62,000.00. I was appalled and extremely upset because I am in the healthcare market and knew that nothing could have cost that much that was used in my surgery.
After requesting a copy of the hospital supply list, I found they had shown use of a product called SepraFilm (7 sheets). This product was billed to Cigna at $46,000.00 by the hospital. Cigna in turn allow $18,000. SepraFilm is used for preventing adhesions in abdominal surgeries.
I have contacted both Cigna and the hospital. The hospital’s nurse auditor will be the person to review the claim. They expect that process to take 4-6 week and have put my bill on hold. I am shocked that not only did the hospital bill this in error, but that Cigna blindly paid it.
Doesn’t their system show that the nose and abdomen are quite a distance from each other?
People wonder what is wrong with out healthcare system. This is a perfect example. Fortunately I am an informed consumer. Many people would pay their co-pay and move on without a question. In the meantime, the fact the Cigna paid $20,000 for a claim that should have been probably around $2800.00 is going to cause an increase in premiums next year. This is a vicious cycle and though I disagree that the government should manage healthcare, reform is critical!