Placentia-Linda Hospital Inc

Hospital does not disclose billing costs prior to procedures. For emergency room visits we cannot discuss any insurance or financial liability prior to the completion of the medical screening exam per EMTALA regulations. The testing that was completed for this patient was part of the medical...

screening exam.Hospital will not provide customer service calls regarding billing. The hospital has an 8004 that is provided on all billing for patients to call and discuss their bills.Hospital will not return calls, faxes, or letters from consumers with billing complaints. The hospital did not receive any of the above for this complaint. The patient's dispute letter was sent to the billing department and was received on 12/08/15. It was sent to the hospital to review on 12/15/15. The hospital sent a response back to the billing department on 12/22/15 stating that there were no quality of care issues and that the patient would be responsible for the charges. On 01/04/16, a call was placed to the patient to advise him of the outcome of the review, they were unable to leave a message due to no answering machine. On 01/06/16, the patient's wife called in and wanted to know the outcome of the letter that was written. She was Informed at that time that there were no quality of care issues identified and that the balance was patient responsibility. On 01/28/16, patient's wife called in again and was advised that she was informed on 01/06/16 of the outcome and was set up on a payment plan. Patient's wife calls in monthly to the bill departmant to make the payment and speaks to a representative. She asks each time if the dispute can be rereviewed or states that she is going to resubmit. It has been explained to her each time that it has already been reviewed and there were no quality issues found.Hospital refuses to acknowledge medical errors made during Ernergency Room visits. There were no errors made on the visit in question. The patient's medical record was reviewed by both the Director of Quality and the Medical Director of the Emergency Room.Unethical billing practices with over-inflated medical charges, Our charges are in line with other facilities in the community,Hospital staff will not discuss bllling charges, no staff on hand to resolve complaints. The patient's dispute that was sent in did not address charges, it was strictly around the quality of the care received. The hospital does have a chart auditor on site that reviews the charges, on all disputes received that question charges, to ensure that we charged correctly. The facility was never contacted directly.