Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital

Review: I had shopped around several doctors’ offices for pricing on receiving allergy testing. Every office gave me a around the same price of $600 total for the entire test and office visit. Froedtert Medical had given me the price directly from their billing department of $245-$668 for the office consultation and a one time fee of $44 dollars for the test. I had asked if they could confirm the pricing based off the service I had needed, which they said yes it is going to be $245. I had requested quote to be emailed to me, which it was along with a letter in the mail CONFIRMING the TOTAL COST of $245-$668 and a charge of $44 for the allergy test. Since Froedtert was priced more competitively then other doctors by about $200 and only because they were cheaper, I decided to proceed with Froedtert and schedule the appointment. When I arrived for the appointment, I again confirmed the cost with the receptionist at the front desk who confirmed the charges of $245-668 and a cost of $44 dollars for the allergy test. Prior to be seeing by the doctor for the allergy test I had 4 sources within the organization all confirm with me the same price. After the appointment I had received a bill in the mail for $2,473.88. After opening the bill I was shocked that they must have confused my billing with another patient. I have placed several calls to the offices to get the issue straightened out, but to no avail. I never asked for these additional charges to be made and none of the charges reflect the pricing that they had giving me on 4 separate occasions by 4 different members of the organization and 2 of them being in writing. I never signed, authorized, approved, accepted or agreed to have any of these charges ACCEPT the pricing of $245 office charge and $44 charge for the allergy test.Desired Settlement: My desired outcome before further action is taken is for Froedtert to have enough integrity to simply honor the pricing that was agreed upon prior to the appointment. As I stated before I never had agreed to additional services and Froedtert never told me of such additional or hidden charges. They never asked for my permission and never had me sign off, authorize written or verbally anything in addition to the scope of service I had received the quotation for and signed off on. Froedtert partook in dishonest and deceptive billing practices and they need to honor the pricing that they had confirmed with me on 4 occasions and adjust the bill accordingly.

Review: The billing process is too confusing. Each visit has a new account number. I have been making monthly payments since 11/2012 but do not get statements that reflect this. They are now double dipping for physician office visits. I paid a copay fo $20 for MD office visit on the Froedtert grounds and they are submitting late bill for facility charges for those office visits, has generated an additional copay. Visits in questions: 10/2012, 1/22/13; 4/24/13; 8/7/13. My insurance is only able to resend the last two visits. I am only responsible for one copay for MD visits regardless if the physician office is free standing or affiliated with a hospital structure.

They have sent me to collections for $110 but they do not send me bills with payments received from me.Desired Settlement: Cancel facility charges for MD only visit.

Provided detailed statement of charges and payments today from 10/2012 thru now.

We have received multiple billings for the same procedures. The charges have been paid in full - we have copies of the paid checks. And we receive invoices 30 days AFTER the checks have been deposited to the FMCW account
Upon our calls to the billing office we are told -"we are behind in our accounting"
Yet we continue to receive invoices with the subtle indication that the account will be referred for collection
This type of billing and delay of crediting accounts has been our experience before. Payments submitted during the month do not get credited until the next month invoice is printed - often weeks after the payment is made. Then a second invoice is sent indicating late payment.

Their Billing practices are confusing and they always are over billing. I am suppose to receive a free annual exam , but whenever I go for my annual physical, I am charged for 2 visits if the Dr asks me a question and I answer it. It is considered another exam if the Dr puts in her report that she answered my concerns about a specific problem.
I have to call most of the times that we have any Dr bill because they code things wrong and I get billed for too much.

Review: Because the Hospital has "Miss-coded" a procedure. The insurance company will not pay for the service. This service was always covered in the past and recently if the Hospital uses the correct coding.

I have called Billing Three times to be reassured the matter will be corrected--- Keep getting bills, I've sent letters, and after sending letters, one of the bills were dropped, but still keep getting billed for another one, which are both the same procedure ...Desired Settlement: I am dealing with a terminal illness, which is hard enough....

Stop billing me for the Hospitals errors in coding and remove any negatives from my credit report

Business

Response:

The Froedtert Health Patient Financial Services Department was made aware of these concerns and we have spoken with the patient on several occasions. Our official review was completed on 12/4/15. A call was attempted on 12/8 and contact was made on 1/8 advising of the review decision.As we have shared our final decision with the patient, we do consider this issue closed. The patient call contact our Patient Relations Department at ###-###-####, should he wish to further pursue this concern.

Review: My care at Froedert Hosp. was very good but not so good with the billing. The billing was through the Medical College of Wi Community Physicians. When a bill would arrive, I would pay it in full on line. Sept 12th I received an automated call from a bill collection agency Optimum (I thought someone stole my identity because I am never late with any payments, what made it even worse was I was on vacation in Reno when the call came), when I returned home that Monday there was a letter from Optimum stating I owed on 2/11/14 $7.09 and $57.64; on 3/7/14 I owed $.36 cents. (really?! I'm not going to pay thirty six cents???) How can you pay a bill if you never receive it? Medical college billing never called me, emailed or sent this bill to me. I paid the collection agency immediately. It is very poor for such a huge organization to have such a sloppy billing and poor customer service. I called medical college Physicians billing and asked for itemized billing and they were at a loss as to what happened. I have received nothing in the mail. For all I know I didn't even need to pay the collection agency $65.09. It is very poor to send a customer to a collection agency when they never received the bill.Desired Settlement: I want to see what they charged me and what I paid. (Itemized bill) Prove to me I owed what I paid the collection agency. I never received this on my bill

2/11/14 $7.09

2/11/14 $57.64

3/7/14 $.36 cents

Review: A collection appeared on my credit report for $100 from Froedtert that I was unfamiliar with (I had never received services from them and they had no record of it). After filing a dispute with the credit bureaus, I discovered that it was from a bill that my wife had received and the collector had listed as a joint account.

1. Since I never received a bill in my name and had no knowledge of this before seeing it on my credit report, I don't know how this can be listed as a joint account.

2. My wife was well over her out of pocket maximum for the year, so this should have been covered by her insurance company.Desired Settlement: Remove collection from our credit records and bill insurance company. If it's declined by the insurance company, inform us and we will work with them or pay the invoice as appropriate.

Review: I have contacted Froedtert Hospital many times regarding medical record inconsistencies and incorrect medical record data. The manager of the GI Dept. promised to have the Compliance Dept. contact me and I have left messages with the Manager of the GI Dept., Compliance Dept. The Compliance Dept. has refused to respond to lack of medical documentation, and incorrect information regarding a pregnancy test that was corrected from negative. Since their is no way I could be pregnantand medical record numbers and account information are not consistent I am questioning a mix up of patient information. There is also incorrect documentation regarding other information to which they will not respond. Incorrect data endangers the patient and yet they will not address my concerns.Desired Settlement: I would like to have them address incorrect data and address whether they have another patients information mixed up with mine. I would like to have a written explanation as they have come up with many excuses as to why incorrect and inaccurate information is in my medical record.

Review: The complaint is actually 2 in 1. First issue involves faulty crutches which I received from the ER at Froedtert. The bottoms of the crutches tore causing me to fall. They were defective and with a broken ankle that is not an acceptable practice. The hospital did send a new set but then also sent me a bill for the new set even though they were only 2 weeks old. Also dealing with that same injury I went in, had a temporary cast cut off, and had was given a book to wear over the break. Over and above the Dr.'s charges which were seperate I was charged $719 for this 10 minute office visit. I checked online and I can find the same boot for $50 - $100. I realize I will pay extra to get it from the Dr. but $486 is over the top. It is also unreasonable to charge $171 to have someone spend 10 minutes cutting the case off with a scissors and put the boot on me. I believe if they are going to charge these type of excessive amounts they need to be disclosing it up front as I would have chose a different route and cut it off myself and bought the boot and only been out around $125.Desired Settlement: I expect the replacement crutch charge to be removed along with a reasonable amount to cover my time for having to deal with them and the mfg (I told them up front to make sure I didn't get charged for the replacement) and a reasonable billing adjustment to the boot visit - I think half of the $719 would still be high but I would be willing to pay that.

Business

Response:

We have responded to the patient regarding his

concerns. Our Emergency Department was

made aware of Mr. [redacted]'s concerns with his crutches on May 19th. Upon hearing the information, we immediately

reported the issue to Home Care Medical, our partner in providing durable

medical equipment to patients. New,

replacement crutches were delivered to Mr. [redacted] that day.

Review: I repeatedly requested an explanation of charges for medical services and never received the information I requested. Provider referred matter to collections agency after they promised to resolve the matter with me directly. I have now of course paid the collections agency to avoid harm to my credit report but the practices of this hospital are unconscionable and extortionist.

On August 23, 2013 I sent a letter to Froedtert explicitly stating my questions after experiencing very rude customer service. Here is a summary of events:

This letter seeks clarification as to Froedtert’s billing for services dated:

April 8, 2013

May 6, 2013

June 10, 2013

On each of these dates I received the same exact treatment. When I received my billing statement on July 16, 2013, each date included a separate charge in a separate amount as follows:

April 8, 2013 – $154.50

May 6, 2013 – $235.50

June 10, 2013 – $159.00

I understand that these charges are for “hospital services only,” and that I had the opportunity to request an itemized statement if I did not understand the charges. I did not understand how “hospital services” for the same treatment could vary on each date. I requested the itemized statements. Those itemized statements are as follows:

April 8, 2013 – $235.50 = ($159.00 + $76.50)

May 6, 2013 – $159.00

June 10, 2013 – $159.00

The itemized statements reduced the May 6 charge by $76.50, but then increased the April 8 charge by $81.

I do not understand how a previously billed amount can increase. Further, the itemized statements do not provide sufficient detail upon which I can understand what these charges are for and how they are determined.

I called again on August 22, 2013 to ask the above questions. I was put on hold several times and then told that if I requested another itemization, the amounts would go up. And that only if I wanted to take the chance that the bill would increase that I should request for an itemization and review. I asked how a previously invoiced amount could increase. The representative stated that invoices are never “final” and that they are subject to change.

Objectively this statement makes no sense. Further, there is no statement on the invoice that provides as much. It is highly unethical that Froedtert would attempt to dissuade a patient from seeking explanation of billing by threatening to increase the bill.

In conclusion I requested:

1. An explanation of each charge in lay terms.

2. Froedtert’s internal schedule of costs for each service or charge.

I never received the above information, and after multiple requests my bill was sent to collections and I was forced to pay without an adequate resolution to my legitimate questions.Desired Settlement: I would like actual answers to my questions as to why I was billed the amount I was billed. I am requesting a refund of the amount I was forced to pay to a collections firm due to this company's strongarm tactics.

Review: Hello,

My husband incurred several hospital bills in February 2015. We made arrangements to pay for these bills on a monthly basis and had until the end of the year, 2015, to pay the monthly adjustments. Froedtert was to send monthly bills in the amount of $330.00 from that point forward but our account has been turned over to a collections agency. A first monthly bill was paid to Froedtert in May of 2015. After, an extra payment, equal to more than two months of billings was made later in the month of May. Froedtert did not send monthly bills for June of July as a result of the extra payment and now Froedtert has sent our case to collections despite receiving an additional, third payment August 8th. In total, they have received over four months worth of payments since they first began billing in May 2015. I called to request the matter be removed from collections since we have been paying our monthly bills and was told that since we did not contact them, telling them the second, large payment in the amount of $800.00 was meant for two months of payments, our bill has now been turned over to collections. I was also told that our matter does not merit being removed from collections since we did not communicate our intentions with our second $800.00 payment, We find this measure abusive, especially considering this will affect our credit record in the future, and so far, Froedtert has been less than willing to assist and nonresponsive to our case.Desired Settlement: We wish to continue with the monthly billings and to have our credit record restored by having this account removed from the collections agency.

STAY FAR FAR AWAY
(Only person pretending to care is somebody that tries to polish their reputation by replying back to the countless complaints here on yelp and across the internet about Froedtert)
Where else can you go to be instilled with nightmares for life by waking up gasping and paralyzed due to poor level of care and procedure gone awry, made an it when you question the staff afterwards what all happened and told I am making things up and telling me it was all in my head, then later staff records makes small reference to my statement being true in the medical records all while nobody ever apologizing for what happened or for making me out to be a liar in public and then to have the nerve to send me the bill for this horror movie like episode.
If I could give ZERO STARS I would have. Absolute Nightmare Experienced during procedure you might only see in movies. Anesthesia Failed and Woke up during procedure gasping for air and paralyzed while still able to feel everything.

STAY FAR FAR AWAY
(Only person pretending to care is somebody that tries to polish their reputation by replying back to the countless complaints [redacted] and across the internet about Froedtert)
Where else can you go to be instilled with nightmares for life by waking up gasping and paralyzed due to poor level of care and procedure gone awry, made an it when you question the staff afterwards what all happened and told I am making things up and telling me it was all in my head, then later staff records makes small reference to my statement being true in the medical records all while nobody ever apologizing for what happened or for making me out to be a liar in public and then to have the nerve to send me the bill for this horror movie like episode.
If I could give ZERO STARS I would have. Absolute Nightmare Experienced during procedure you might only see in movies. Anesthesia Failed and Woke up during procedure gasping for air and paralyzed while still able to feel everything.