Noble Hospital

Noble Hospital Urgent Care demands [redacted] from people presenting with a workman's comp claim. This practice is clearly discriminatory.I was unable to schedule an appointment with my pcp and was directed to Noble Urgent Care today. I had approval from my employer's insurer to see them and have an assigned claim #. Noble Urgent Care refused to see me without a [redacted] payment. The insurance adjustor offered to talk to Noble, but they refused and stated policy again.Desired SettlementChange policy about [redacted] payment so people can be seen without paying their OWN FUNDS into a system to which they have no obligation.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted], [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@noblehealth.orgAs the [redacted] of [redacted] Noble Medical Group I am more than glad to respond and help resolve this issue. My first comment is that this complaint was sent to Noble Hospital which is not the company the urgent care center falls under. The urgent care center is under Noble Medical Group which operates under a separate tax ID number. The letter was sent to the Business office at the Hospital and was handed to me yesterday. The Urgent Care Center is a new practice that opened November 4th, 2013. As a new practice, we were advised by our outside billing company to collect an initial payment of [redacted] up front for self-pay patients, workers comp and auto accidents. The reason for the [redacted] is many times with a workers comp case, patients will state after the visit they do not want their workplace to know about the claim and we are unable to bill. In addition, the [redacted] is reimbursed by the patients employer/ insurance. We have continued to follow this policy for the six months that we have been opened. The [redacted] at the urgent care center documented the incident due to the comments the patient made to her- she was very upset and angry. The documentation indicated that the [redacted] recommended that she could go to the ER and they would provide care. The patient was upset and stated they did not want to go and will change her care to another organization. The patient was very angry and the documentation states she was not appropriate in the waiting room. The patient called her insurance adjustor and wanted to speak to the [redacted]. The [redacted] stated that the adjuster could call her back on the business line but was hesitant to speak to them directly on the patients personal line. The [redacted] stated she really could not confirm who she was speaking to.As the [redacted] of Noble Medical Group, I will relook at the policy and continue to seek advisement to the appropriate policy that we need to adhere to. We take a lot of pride on patient satisfaction. In this situation, it would seem reasonable if we had a claim number up front which I believe the patient tried to communicate to the [redacted] we could have made an exception. Urgent Care centers are very new and we are trying to implement policies to accommodate the patient and stay whole financially. Again, we will revisit this in the next staff meeting and continue discussion with out legal resources to make sure we are receiving the correct guidance. I hope this is helpful and if you have any further questions, please feel free to call me.[redacted] of [redacted] Nobel Medical Group

Gragil claims Statements of Account were sent to me about 3 to 5 times. I don't recall ever receiving any of them. None were sent with confirmation.These are poor, parasitical business practices which are designed to deliberately increase the risk of damaging a customer's reputation across the banking, finance, healthcare industries, increasing the risk of patient blacklisting and abandonment.Both representatives (at Gragil) blamed me, the customer, for what Gragil claimed was Noble Hospital's decision to send my statements to the wrong address. If I remember correctly, I thought I had already filed a Revdex.com complaint against the hospital about another billing issue. Fortunately, I did in fact receive - what the debt collector claims - was my first debt collection letter.I do not consider it a "best practice" for the Hospital to immediately send my account to collections, increasing my risk of receiving a lowered creditworthiness score for a mailing error that's not my fault.I dispute the validity of the debt or any portion of the debt. I want this to be taken out of collections immediately. Gragil Associates will not receive payment. I want all collections efforts to cease. I need a statement of account from the Hospital.Per the back of my letter, it states that I have the right to make a written or oral request that telephone calls regarding my debt not be made to me at my places of employement.The problem here is that the debt collection company does not send out any debt collection letters by Certified Mail with a Return Receipt or by Signature Confirmation. Neither does the Hospital. Because of this, if the "Address Service Requested" service fails, then the customer is left with a blemished credit score apparently, assuming he or she never receives any of the debt collection letters (or calls). When I complained about this, the rep stated that even with Signature or Return Receipt, the customer will not sign for the mail and pay the debt, that is, as if it were true in all cases. But that is a foregone conclusion.The customer is not given a fair chance to prove that he never received the debt collection letter. There is quite a difference between *sending* a letter and *receiving* that same letter. Hence, the Post Office provides means of tracking all from a Tracking Number to Signature Confirmation, Certified Mail, and even a Return Receipt. And the Post Office does keep a copy of some of these...if not all.Reps were unpleasant and did not agree with me about how they fail at their jobs. "Oh, I'm sure they must have sent out 3 to 5 bills." The key part is *sent*.Desired SettlementQuit trying to blemish credit scores. Quit deliberately increasing the risk of damaging a customer's reputation. Accounts should not be sent to collections for clients who have *NOT* sent out Statements of Account by signature confirmation or Certified Mail with Return Receipt and with a phone call. It's not a best practice to continue on with what you are doing. It is a foregone conclusion (by Gragil) to state that a customer will refuse to sign for the letter. Hence, it's not necessary to even attempt a Signature Confirmation or Return Receipt. Although that may be true in some (or most cases), it is not a certainty. You may have an honest customer and everyone else is at fault.Business Response Contact Name and Title: [redacted]Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXXContact Email: [redacted]@noblehealth.orgGood Morning, I am unable to provide any specific information with regard to Mr [redacted]" account due to our HIPAA requirements. However,if you would be kind enough to have Mr. [redacted] oontact me directly, I will be happy to make sure that all his concerns are addressed.I do want you to know as a policy Noble Hospital does not report any unpaid bills to the Credit Bureau. Thank you for bringing this matter to my attentionFinal Consumer Response (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)I stated clearly that I am disputing its validity and that I want your debt collector to take my account from collections immediately.Final Business Response Mr.[redacted] and I spoke this morning. I have explained what happened and apologized.I believe that the matter is now resolved and closed to his satisfaction[redacted]