Hospital has billed me incorrectly

[kanbing]

Hope I can get some input on how to best dispute a medical bill with a hospital. Its not yet in collection, so I don’t believe I can use Whychat’s standard approach yet. Apologies if this is not the correct forum as a result.

 

I had a life threatening medical condition that required an inpatient procedure in early December 08 to correct. I spent one night in the hospital and my co-pay was $100 for the entire visit. Several days later the symptoms returned and I went to the hospital’s ER on my doctor’s advice. They kept me overnight, and my doctor performed the same procedure the next day, but did not find a recurrence of the problem. Doctor told me I could not leave the hospital that day (procedure is often done as outpatient) so I left the following day. I spent two nights in the hospital.

 

In January, I got a statement from the insurance company that they had paid my second procedure as an outpatient procedure as that was what the hospital billed for (despite my being in the hospital for two days and being instructed by the doctor that I could not leave). My co-pay as an outpatient was approximately 15 percent, or about $1400. Called the insurance company and they said they could not address the problem since they had paid what they were required to. They said I needed to get the hospital to fix this. Called the hospital and they refused to adjust the bill, saying it was definitely an outpatient procedure as I could be in the hospital for 72 hours without being admitted.

 

Hospital finally billed me on 6/26 of this year. I disputed the bill with the hospital through their dispute process. They called me today to tell me they have reviewed and have rejected the appeal. They refused to provide me with anything in writing about this ruling.

 

I’m at a loss on how to proceed. I have the money to pay the bill, but don’t think I should have to. I have great credit and don’t want to damage that. Do I have any recourse through the FCBA or something similar about accuracy in billing? It seems very fishy to me that the hospital is refusing to put their response in writing.

 

Thanks for any advice or ideas you might have.