What is Up with Atrium and their Billing?
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Printed Date: Nov 27 2024 at 3:54am
Topic: What is Up with Atrium and their Billing?
Posted By: wasteful
Subject: What is Up with Atrium and their Billing?
Date Posted: Oct 13 2009 at 6:20pm
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What is up with Atrium medical center do they and McNeil not read the newspapers or watch the news and know that we are in a recession.
I have talked to al least 6 or 7 people this week all who have been turned over to collections because they fell behind with their medical bills to Atrium. I have never seen so many sent to collections by a hospital. Half the city must be in collections at this rate. What is up with them?
Most of the ones I talked to stated they have been trying to pay but Atriums terms are to harsh for the current economic times and they just can't do it. So they fall behind and get sent to collections which doesn't get them to pay any quicker just puts more stress and anguish on an already bad situation.
I would think that a Hospital would be more understanding and open to being a good community partner than what is currently happening at Atrium, considering these economic times.
Personally if this is the way Atrium is going to react to local citizens I would consider using another hospital for non emergency procedures or elective procedures.
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Replies:
Posted By: Gary Barge
Date Posted: Oct 13 2009 at 9:00pm
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Wasteful,
I liked to fill you in on a couple of things about Atrium Hospital billing dept. Their job is to collect any way shape or form or as rude as it may be to pay the hospital bill.
This is the Ohio state law. If you owe any kind of medical bill in the state of Ohio and you call that billing dept. and tell them all you can afford is to pay them $1 a month no matter how big the bill is and if they refuse to accept your payment by law it is considered paid in full. If they send it to a collection agency after you have offered any type of payment you should contact the Ohio Attorney General's Health and Human Service dept. for disciplinary procedures. And by the way when you contact any billing dept to make arrangements to pay on the bill have them give that to you in writing that they will not accept your payment offer and then you can use that in your local jurisdiction. this law was enacted in 1996. The refusal to take any kind of payment is against the law. Therefore it would be considered paid in full. Just thought you would like to know.
Gary Barge
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Posted By: Nelson R. Self
Date Posted: Oct 13 2009 at 10:48pm
| Best wishes to you and yours, Gary. Fight the good fight. |
Posted By: Bocephus
Date Posted: Oct 14 2009 at 12:57am
| You have to watch atrium and their billing system,its no longer done by employees of Atrium is it done by a medical billing service that handles all 3 hospitals in the medical group that atrium is part of (premeire maybe?) Even if you set up payments they keep sending you statements saying that you are late and now they want 2 payments.And its because their billing cycle is 28 days if you are paid on the same days of the month every month it really gets irritating and you have to call the idgits every month to fix it. |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Oct 14 2009 at 7:04am
Perhaps the hospital as a whole, needs to start providing adequate service before they ask a person to open their wallet to pay for it. Was at Atrium's Emergency Room last night with the wife being admitted with a kidney issue. Once again, for the second time in the last few months, their emergency room was a joke as to service. The people manning the front desk of the emergency room had no URGENCY about anything. Either they are grossly understaffed or they need an attitude adjustment on the subject of URGENCY and "getting off their duff and doing something pertinent". I like it when they see you standing there staring at them and they ask "has someone helped you". Answer- "No, I don't need any help" "I'm just standing here because I'm a participant in a study to judge just how inept you people really are". It just never gets any better in that area of the hospital, even after filing a complaint the last time she was there with chest pains and having told them she had had two heart attacks. We walked out after sitting for 3 hours and the pain subsided. Thank you for allowing me to vent. It does get frustrating, especially the second time around. 
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Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Oct 14 2009 at 8:31am
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Hope you wife is doing better Vet. Hope you didn't get Kojak as your Dr. at the ER. All the bedside manner of Jack the Ripper. I think if I got him again and I could be wheeled out of the ER and I would go to West Chester. |
Posted By: retired co
Date Posted: Oct 15 2009 at 8:04am
| Atrium billing is something else I've recieved bills for procedures done as much as 4 month prior to billing. I pay them but they sure don't get in a hurry to send them to you before they are months old. I had several procedures done there and paid twice what they cost me at University of Cincinnati . I will continue to drive the distance if it saves my insurance and me substantial money rather than go to the Atruim. I might add I also seem to get people at UC that seem deeply concerned about the health issues and answer all your questions. The ER at Atrium is terrible so slow in getting a Dr to see patients . My Grandsom was having severe Chest pains and waited 3 hours when still not seen by a Dr My Daughter took him to Sycamore . He was immediatly examined and sent home in about a hour torn muscles in his chest. |
Posted By: HereIam
Date Posted: Oct 15 2009 at 12:29pm
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Just thoutht I'd add my 2 cents - I was taken by ambulance to Atrium for severe adominal pains last summer (2008). My service in the emergency room was ok, however, when the hospital started billing me they said that I owed almost $2,000 that my insurance wouldn't pay. We started paying them $50 a month as that was all we could afford. This was accepted by them for about 3 months, then all of a sudden we were sent to collections. We informed the collections agency that we are paying direct to the hospital and that we would not pay them. Funny, we got a letter from Atrium shortly after that conversation saying that we are being handled by them again and that they would accept the payments. I gues I wanted to share this so others would know how to handle the collections company if they are making their own payments to Atrium |
Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Oct 16 2009 at 12:53pm
| HereIam- Did your EOB say you owed Atrium anything? With all of my wife's Medical problems over the years, we have found that the doctors, labs and hospitals love to try the old "you pay us first before we submit the charges to the insurance company" routine. IE- you have a procedure done at the hospital, a lab test done by a doctor referral or a doctor's office charge. You give each of them your insurance card and they make a copy for their records. They submit the charges to your insurance company and they collect. They then send you a bill for the same service and ask for payment. You contact them and ask them- "did you submit your charges to the insurance company first, before I pay you anything?" Most will say, "no we didn't submit yet". We then suggest that they do as the insurance is to pay first, then the patient is responsible for the remainder if any exists. Sometimes, the doctor, the labs and the hospitals overcharge for a procedure violating the contract they signed with the insurance company. The EOB will tell you that the overcharge is not the patient's responsibility and will say "0" as to your responsibility. That tells you they are trying to overcharge you and you can tell them to go pound salt. |
Posted By: wasteful
Date Posted: Oct 16 2009 at 2:05pm
| Talked to Atrium this morning about my Hospital bills evidently they have now turned their Billing over to a company called CSI......Oh Joy. |