can someone help?

Long story short:

My DH hurt his hand back in 03.
He went to the emergency rm signed in to get stiches, but they had him wait.
He was never seen by any doctor or nurse.

After 3 1/2 hours of waiting, he decided to leave & go to another hospital in which he was seen, treated & released within 15 minutes.

He was billed from that hospital & he paid the bill in full

He recently got a letter in the mail from a collection agency saying he ows $580 billed by the first hospital he went to.

My husband writes a letter to the agency saying that he was never treated & to provide proof of the service they claimed to have provided.

The agency sends back a statement from the hospital (not itemized, no doctors name.. nothing) it just says: Emergency Room Fee: $580.

My husband calls to dispute this once again & these ba$tards tell him that this has been reported to a credit agency & that they will indicate in their records that he "refuses to pay".

What in the world can he do..?

You know what really suckss?? The 2nd hospital that he went to has been closed down for about 4 years now so he cant even retreive medical record proving that he was treated & billed there!

Message edited 1/31/2008 1:42:49 PM.

Re: can someone help?

What hospital was he treated at? and was he covered under insurance when he did? they would have record of who/where he was treated. I would do some searching on the doctor that he saw and try to look them up. Those files have to be SOMEWHERE because if I'm not mistake, the law requires them to hold onto medical records for 10 (sp?) years.

I'm sorry he is going through this.

Re: can someone help?

If he didn't give his social security number, then it won't go on his credit report, so just ignore it.

I have a similar situation. I went to an ER and my insurance covered it. But there is one bill that I kept getting. No one could tell me why it wasn't paid by my insurance. So i was put down as "Refused to pay". I had insurance. Its their responsibility to demonstrate why I should pay. Since they can't, I refuse.

Re: can someone help?

Unfortunately just for walking into the ED you get charged $500.00 (the going rate). Depending on how far he got in the "sign in" process will determine whether he is truly responsible for the bill. As far as getting the records from the other hospital, you could always contact the insurance company that you had and they should be able to produce an EOB. HTH

Re: can someone help?

am I right be assuming he paid the hospital bill himself? It doesn't sound like he had insurance from what you posted.

If he did, then the insurance company should fight it.

They have the right to charge you for the ER fee. It's probably posted somewhere in the ER waiting room.

Sorry, not the info you wanted to get.

Re: can someone help?

Re: can someone help?

Dispute with the insurance company. Call them and ask them to handle for you. It might take a supervisor though, a rep may not understand or know what to do.

Re: can someone help?

Did he sit with the triage nurse and get evaluated?

Re: can someone help?

If you are triaged than they will charge you for the visit. I always warn people that if they leave without being discharged by the doctor that they will get the bill and will be responsible for it. I am not familiar with all insurance companies, but from what our billing people have told me, the insurance company will not pay if you leave before discharge and you will be responsible for the bill.

Maybe they can work something out so he is not responsible for all of the bill?

The second ER visit in another hospital is irrelevant, because he was seen and discharged there, so that will be covered. It will not make the first bill go away.