I have been a resident of Rehoboth Beach for five years, and just had the opportunity to utilize the outpatient surgery services at Beebe Healthcare. The staff was wonderful, and thankfully the surgery was a success.
Unfortunately, I have been dealing with the Beebe business office since May regarding charges on my account incurred on the day of surgery. Specifically, a charge of $1,202.25 showed up on my statement once as “implantable mesh,” then again under a vague classification of “general supplies.”
Other general supplies were listed with prices such as $67, $134 or $267.75. I quickly contacted the billing office, since either this charge is a true coincidence or I was being charged twice. I was told the hospital would “look into it.”
Two weeks later I was left a voice mail stating that the charges were correct. When I contacted them by phone to ask for a printout of the exact supplies that were used on that day, I was curtly told to contact their medical records department. That proved to be fruitless, since I only received records of the procedure that was done, not specific supplies.
Beebe claims to have investigated the matter again and has tried to claim the identical fee is for the actual surgery, not supplies. That figure is close to the amount, but off by $2.50. The business office really doesn’t know for sure what these charges are, but won’t give me a breakdown of the fees/supplies.
I contacted my insurance company since they already paid the claim. Their customer service could not get an answer out of Beebe either. Though the insurance carrier empathizes, their hands are tied since they already paid out.
It appears that the Office of Personnel Management will have to be contacted since they oversee my insurance plan. Why should I even have to go this far when the hospital should have provided the information from the beginning? It does not bode well that they won’t give out the list of specific supplies that were used during the surgery. If I am paying for it, I have a right to know whatI am paying for.
Thankfully, I can afford the charges, though receiving a harsh form letter to pay up immediately or face the wrath of a collection agency does not leave me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. If this scenario is happening to me, I can only imagine how many other patients have had the same thing happen to them.
With the influx of full-time residents making their home in our coastal area, a word of warning to all who have any type of medical procedure - review your account summary with a finetooth comb!
Michael Behringer
Rehoboth Beach
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