COOK CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER

Cook Childrens Hospital treated my 4 week old infant not as an individual but as a statistic i.e. he tested positive for RSV, 4 weeks old, parents had insurance.
ON December 18 2018 my son *** 11/18/2018 was on day 8-10 of having a common cold. He was better the days leading up to the 18th but on the 18th he started breathing heavily. We took him to Cook Childrens Medical Hospital ER (***). We were taken to a private room quickly and received care. I agree that my son needed oxygen but while he was given oxygen he was never given adequate time to stabilize. He was constantly being poked and tested causing him to stress and worsen. We were told he was dehydrated (he was not because he was eating and had normal poops and pees) so they started an IV. Come to find out they were prepping us for NICU. My son tested positive for RSV. They said he needed highflo oxygen that was only available in NICU. He was not given the chance to see how he would respond to regular oxygen in a calm environment. I think staff took advantage of my wife being scared so she did not question them. I feel like my son was healthy and ready for discharge after 24 hours of care but he was held there for 4 days.
On December 19 a therapist came to perform respiratory therapy as ordered by the doctor. The therapist saw I was holding and burping my son and he said what I was doing was far more effective and he explained that all he was going to do was place a small vibrator next to my son. The therapist left. On December 20 I returned to my son's room and found the same therapist performing the therapy with the vibrator. He stopped and left when I came in. I was billed for 4 therapy sessions (2 on Dec 19 and 2 on Dec 20). My complaint is why would the doctor order such unnecessary treatment and why would the therapist return when I was gone? The hospital refuses to adjust these false charges.
By the end of Dec 19 my son was doing so well he should have been placed in a regular room and put on regular oxygen. The hospital did not have regular rooms available. There were many open rooms in the NICU.
On December 21 I asked to be discharged around 5-5 AM. The nurse kept telling us that the doctor was making his rounds. By 8AM I told staff we were leaving at 9AM regardless. The charge nurse came in and asked why we were trying to leave and I told her they had kept us there two days longer than needed. The charge nurse came back and said the doctor had a 9AM meeting but she was ask if he would come. The charge nurse was not happy. Found 9AM the doctor came in and the first thing he said was he was missing his 9AM meeting to discharge us. Both the charge nurse and doctor were extremely unprofessional given the hospital charged us $40,000 for our stay.
My son did test positive for RSV and needed oxygen. I 100% feel as though the hospital took advantage of us and chose the most expensive route possible. We were at the hospital for 4 days and never once consulted from someone from billing and had no idea they were charging us $40k. While in NICU my son never needed anything other than oxygen. My wife and I changed him, held him, fed him. My son did not need the 1:2 nurse to patient ratio provided by the NICU. The NICU bed next to us remained unused for 95% of our 3 day stay.
In summary, my son was 4 weeks old tested positive for RSV. The hospital prepped us for NICU because of his age, RSV positive, and because we had insurance. They lied to us about my son needing an IV because he was dehydrated. I learned it is protocol for all NICU patients to have an IV line. The hospital never told how much procedures would cost and there was plenty of time. The ER staff worsened by sons condition in order to justify saying him needing Highflo. My son was ready for a regular room after 24 hours in NICU but was not given the opportunity. Hospital refuses to adjust our bill for services not rendered and unjustly ordered.

On 10/29/2018 I took my four-year-old daughter to Cook Children’s Imaging Center in *** (*** for follow up XRAYs. My daughter broken her leg when she was one and a half years old and started complaining about leg and hip pain, so my pediatrician wanted to rule out any bone problems. There was a XRAY tech that took two images total. One of her hip and the other her pelvis. We did not see a doctor and the receptionist could not give me any estimated costs up front. Cook Children’s is charging me $876.92 total for two XRAYs! Apparently one image costs $410.56 and the other $466.36. My insurance discount is $140.29 so I owe $736.63. I don’t understand how two XRAYs can cost this much. I called Cook Children’s billing department and the person told me that their prices are comparable for the area. There is no way this is correct. I took my older daughter to Cook Children’s Urgent Care for a possible dislocated arm and two XRAYS cost $70 and $88.20. When I took my youngest to the emergency room for her broken leg they took three images and that cost a total of $392.25. How does a NON-EMERGENCY XRAY COST $876.92?

On November 28, 2018 I talked to another billing person, ***, and she said the issue was reviewed but Cook Children’s stands by their price.

On December 5, 2018 I talked to *** again to beg for a reduction and pay the bill because it was due on this date. There was no reduction and I was forced to pay $736.63 for two xrays. That doesn’t even include the cost for someone to read the xrays which cost an additional $90.

On December 18, 2018 a Patient Representative by the name of *** called me to apologize about the way things were handled but the bill would not be reduced.

Cooks children medical center is intentionally up charging patients. My daughter went to the ER and had blood drawn. A simple lab test was run called a basic metabolic panel. This panel was broken into 8 parts for each lab value and billed as 8 different procedures. All of these procedures were billed to the maximum amount allowable. This type of medical billing fraud is known as un-bundling. My insurance was billed with the CPT code *** which designates the charges as a basic metabolic panel. However, upon my calling the *** medical billing office about my itemized bill being broken into 8 separate charges, this was stated as 8 separate procedures per institutional policy.