Yesterday, 10 Nov 2009, I received a letter that said, “Final Notice…” “Failure to comply…” “…Full Payment by 11/12/09″ “Amount Due: $18.66″
Obviously, I’m a bum and the collection agencies are after me but this is the first I had heard of this bill.
When I called the 800 number on the notice, I was told something about because of prank phone calls I would have to leave my account number and phone number and they would call me back within 24 hours. I then called Methodist Stone Oak Hospital but their billing department had gone home for the day. They send me notice on the 10th to pay by the 12th but they give themselves 24 hours to respond?
I went on line to check out this bill through my insurance.
Teri had a procedure at the hospital on 21 May 2009. The hospital expected my share of the bill to be $1,199.40 and they wanted that up front so I paid it on 21 May 2009.
The last week of July, the hospital sent me bill saying we owed $154.24 additional. I paid it and they received the check on 3 Aug 2009.
I never received a bill for $18.66.
This afternoon, I receive a return call from “Methodist Healthcare - Profees” and they tell me that this bill was the FIRST bill sent on this matter and it was also the FINAL bill. I was told this was a company policy for small bills. After a explained I thought this was rude and wanted an apology, I was told, “That’s not going to happen.” I asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred to a busy signal!
I called back and told the next lady what happened. She was very polite and said she would connect me with her supervisor. She put me on hold but kept coming back on the line to tell me she was going to get my connection through.
When the supervisor came on line, she was much more rude than the very first lady. She said sending FINAL notice as the first notice was a company policy driven by the economy and approved by the physicians using their billing service. This was the first I found out that “Methodist Healthcare - Profees” was NOT the same as the Methodist Hospital System. I asked to speak to her supervisor or someone that could do something about this policy and she told me no one could do anything about it. I could either pay the bill or they would turn it over to a collection agency. I asked her if the company was publically or privately owned and she said it was private. Then I asked to be put in contact with one of the owners. At that point she agreed to transfer me to her supervisor.
The supervisor, Tammy Heard, came on the line after a short wait and she was very polite. She explained it was a policy adopted by the physicians that use their company and she did apologize that it had offended me. She said she would express the impact this policy was having on customers when she had a chance. Bottom line, she was very polite. She explained that the physicians board had made a decision that it was not cost effective to send first, sometimes second and third billings, before sending a FINAL NOTICE, thus they had adopted this policy.
I sent them the money. They should have it in one week but I still feel their process is RUDE.
I tried to express my opinion to the doctor that is using this service, Dr. Jean Liu, but when I called his number, his own billing staff did not know anything about his use of Methodist Healthcare - Profees as a billing agency.
So much for customer relations!