05/05/06 my wife, with a referal from a specialist through our healthcare provider, scheduled and had an MRI for a hip pain she had.
We've been billed for the $2100 every 2 weeks for almost 10 months now. Seems our Cigna healthcare, through a PPO type system, has an agreement with Baptist Healthcare that the hospital MUST call to verify the coverage BEFORE the procedure is done. Cigna says the hospital is absolutely 100% fully aware of this agreement. My case history on this says
$2,072.00
THESE BENEFITS WERE REDUCED DUE TO FAILURE TO COMPLY WITH THE PRE-CERTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS AS OUTLINED IN THE PLAN. THIS AMOUNT REPRESENTS DOLLARS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRE-CERTIFICATION NOT OBTAINED FOR THE SERVICES RENDERED. THE PROVIDER IS PROHIBITED FROM BILLING THE PATIENT FOR THIS AMOUNT. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY PAID THIS AMOUNT, PLEASE REQUEST REIMBURSEMENT FROM YOUR PROVIDER.
I sent ALL of this to the hospital several times, the orthopedic dr did the same thing, 2 weeks ago we were turned in to a collection agency.
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SOB hospital KNOWS that we don't owe them, they know that there was a failure on their end, and STILL they are trying everyway they can to get us to pay the $$$$$
Today after more legwork the collection agency actually called and said our dispute was valid, that the hospital would not be allowed to hound us anymore.
A Hospital ....... doing absolutely everything they can to make me pay when its not my responsibility. Had they made a simple phone call like they are obligated by agreement to do, my Cigna would have paid, end of story. They KNEW they didn't, and instead of just accepting it, they kept at us for almost a year trying to pressure us to pay something we aren't bound to do.
THIS is why I hate hospitals
