Today I ended up visiting my local ER due to my continued lack of voice. While the doctor there finally did something to try and help it, I was angered by a practice the hospital has come up with. They have an “eligibility specialist” in the ER now who comes barging into your room to discuss your insurance or lack thereof with you. Literally. She walked into my room in the ER and informed me that my insurance has a $100 co-pay due AT TIME OF SERVICE for the ER. I doubt that highly. Why?

For one thing, who carries money on them to the ER? Who would honestly be standing there with an emergency and saying “I can’t go to the ER, I don’t have money for the co-pay.” No one, they’d be headed to the ER.

Second, I checked very carefully for what the co-pays for various things were before I signed up, and there was NO co-pay for ER visits. None. So I’d love to know where this came from.

Third, excuse me, but it is none of the hospital’s business when I get paid again. The woman literally handed me an envelope and said “I’ll expecting your $100 payment on Feb 20.” I won’t HAVE it on Feb. 20. I tried to explain that to her, and she said “well then, call me closer to that time and we’ll work out an arrangement.” Excuse me, but no we won’t. I’ve been down that road with that hospital before. It involves filling out detailed forms and literally accounting for every single penny spent, with the hospital literally telling you what you WILL cut out of your budget to pay them in FULL immediately, and threatening legal action against you if you do not comply.

I’m sorry but when someone is sick or injured in the ER, this is NOT the time or place to be worrying about their co-pay, deductible, or anything else. It is tacky and rude to be doing this to patients. Period. Yeah I get it, in this economy they’re trying to make sure they get paid, but let me tell you something, my $100 not being paid today when I saw the doctor in the ER is not going to mean they run out of light bulbs. End of story.

Come on people, have a little courtesy and a little class.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.