Meridian Health

Review: Billed twice in a 3 week period for the same procedure so I inadvertedly paid the $66.68 twice. I paid both payments within 30 days of billing!! This was October 2014. Have spoken to the Meridian billing department on 3 occasions about refunding me, but instead they keep billing me for $66.68. I don't want this to go to collections when I'm the one OWED a refund. I've been promised calls back from supervisors within 48 hours on 2 occasions and never have been called back. When I call back, they are always unable to resolve the issue and extremely dismissive.Desired Settlement: A refund of my $66.68

Business

Response:

see attaches

Review: Visited the emergency room with dislocated shoulder:The Dr. requests some Xrays analyzes them and there is no damage.Dr. proceeds to pulling my arm down until the joint clicks in place. Dr. requests post procedure Xrays checks them and releases me as there is no fragment and recommends follow up with orthopedics Dr.Received bills processed by my healthcare plan as follows:- Total of $64 for Xrays co-pay $19.06 - PAID- Dr. bill for evaluation, "Red shoulder dislocation", check Xrays - Total charges $3,734.00 co-pay 518.20 - PAIDI thought these were the charges when I receive another bill from the hospital for the same shoulder Xray, shoulder complaint, shoulder dislocation - Total charges $4,623.00 co-pay $977.00This to me feels like double charging for the same service. Called the hospital and stated this was a double charge since there was no surgery, the Dr. alone treated the injury, no devices, no medications, no special rooms, nothing was required other than the Dr. pulling my arm down for a minute or 2. Why do I have to pay the hospital twice as much the Dr. charges and why are there double charges to treat the same injury.Called the hospital and asked how much would take to settle this and I was told by [redacted] today 8/5/14 at 13:55 or so I'd need to pay the $977.00. I'm feeeling double charged bilked and that healthcare hospital seems to treat these costs as monopoly money.What should I do? Risk all my savings maybe my house in case of a de facto serious injury? Can you help?Desired Settlement: There should be no double charging by the Dr. and the hospital. Besides the $518.20 already paid to the Dr. there should be no charge for the hospital visit this does not seem right, but to settle this I could pay $100 to $120, cannot see why I should pay anymore or anything besides what was already paid at all.Thank you very much

Business

Response:

This letter is in response to your written inquiry regarding complaint ID [redacted] Upon review of the customer's statement of the problem, it was determined that the hospital billing is appropriate. The services that were rendered required resources from a hospital, physician and radiologist. Although the hospital and the clinical providers may use the same language to describe the charge, their bills are for

separate services. The radiologist and physician's bill will be for professional charges. The hospital bill is for the technical resources.

Review: My complaint is against the billing office for Meridian Health. Billing office phone number is [redacted] The problem is in reference to a bill for $20 I have been receiving for services performed in a doctor's office on 11/14/13. This office visit was my yearly [redacted] visit plus a flu shot. I was very surprised to receive a bill for $20 back in December. I assumed it was a co-pay but the services that were performed do not have a co-pay associated with them. So, I attempted to resolve this issue by calling the billing office. I only got conneted to a robot and it took FIVE separate phone calls on five separate days before I was able to speak with a human being. The person I spoke to said that it might be a case of "miscoding" and if that were so I would be responsible for the bill; she said she would get back to me. She never did.

Since then I have continued to receive bills for $20. I tried calling Meridian "guest relations" and spoke to a woman named [redacted] whose phone number is [redacted]. I explained the problem to her and she said she would look into it and get back to me. She never did.

So, I continue to get incorrect bills and this is not the first time this has happened. Last year they were threatening to send my account to a collection agency until it was resolved that the problem was on their end.

I have had more issues with Meridian Billing than I have ever had with any other individual companyDesired Settlement: Firstly, I would like to have my bill corrected. But, more importantly, I would like Meridian to revise their procedures for customers who have problems. I would specifically like to know what the new procedures will be.

Business

Response:

I received the letter that was sent to Meridian Health on March 25th and began to look into it immediately. I could not find reference of the conversation with the billing company on our system. I checked the documentation of the patient visit and the documentation was appropriate to what was billed. I spoke with [redacted] and had a very good conversation with her regarding how the appointment was made and how there could have been miscommunication regarding what type of appointment she was there for. I spoke with the physician about her balance and we agreed to waive the $20 balance due to the possible miscommunication. [redacted] was satisfied of the outcome with the 'only remaining concern being the number of times she called the billing company without a call back. We have instituted new phone trees over the past few months that directs our calls more quickly however in speaking with the team assigned to the practice that [redacted] sees I am confident that if the patient did indeed call several times this was an outlier and is not normal for our process of returning calls.