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Hospital billing and ignored e-mails.

Posted By ncusa

"Hospital billing and ignored e-mails."

About: Fiona Stanley Hospital

(as the patient),

I am a US citizen who lives in the states and was in AUS for a family wedding. I was rushed to the Fiona Stanley Hospital during the wedding after passing out and vomiting several times. I sat in the ER waiting for an ultrasound for six hours after I told them I knew I was pregnant, but had extreme pain and bleeding on top of my loss of consciousness. After six hours they admitted me to the hospital and I waited another four hours there. At this point my pain was so bad I was screaming in excruciating pain and I finally saw a doctor who immediately wheeled me down himself for surgery. The doctor was amazing and talented. I stayed in the hospital for several days and had many wonderful nurses caring for me (I remember one who was especially sweet). But one unpleasant nurse kicked out my husband even though we had no way of communicating if something bad happened again, nor any vehicle to get to the hospital in an emergency. I couldn't even sit up in bed by myself and the nurse did not help me to get to and from the bathroom. The hospital got my insurance card and told me they would contact my US insurance company, which I found out was false. After leaving the hospital I cannot get anyone to reply to any emails or contact forms to help me with my bills. I offered to set up a payment plan, because I don't have $10, 000 I can hand over immediately, and they ignored my emails again. They then sent me to collections, which I believe will ruin my credit. My insurance company in the US denied my claim because the hospital gave me unofficial medical records and did not reach out to them during or immediately after the incident as they said they would and the hospital will not reply to my emails to help me get the corrected claims to get my insurance to pay the bills. It has been many months since my time at FSH and I am very upset with the quality of care they have shown since leaving and I continue to email different departments of the hospital to ask for help finding my medical records.

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Responses

Response from Janet Zagari, Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Janet Zagari
Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 6/07/2018 at 1:26 PM
Published on Care Opinion at 1:52 PM

picture of Janet Zagari

Dear ncusa,

I was very concerned to read your comments and would like to follow up your experience to understand what occurred and assist with a solution. Could you please contact Fiona Stanley Hospital Patient Family Liaison service via phone: +61 6152 4013 or email: FSHFeedback@health.wa.gov.au so we can investigate your complaint fully.

Kind regards

Janet Zagari

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by ncusa (the patient)

I have emailed that address several times with no response. One time (out of four emails) I got a response saying they would forward my issues to another department and they never helped me.

I am unable to call from the states.

Response from Janet Zagari, Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service, South Metropolitan Health Service 5 years ago
Janet Zagari
Executive Director Transformation, South Metropolitan Health Service,
South Metropolitan Health Service

Submitted on 12/07/2018 at 5:58 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 13/07/2018 at 9:14 AM

picture of Janet Zagari

Dear ncusa

I understand you received an email from the Fiona Stanley Hospital Compensable Patient Liaison Officer providing advice on the queries you raised. In that email you will see they have notified the billing agent (Health Support Services) for you (with your queries to assist with your insurance claim) and that the request for payment arrangement is made through the intermediary collections agency. I understand you submitted an application for your medical record and other documentation on 2 July, 2018. This will be provided to you as soon as practicable.

Kind regards

Janet Zagari,

Executive Director, Fiona Stanley Fremantle Hospitals Group

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by ncusa (the patient)

It took six months for someone to actually reply to a message of mine and I sent at least 20 emails. I wouldn’t say that’s great customer service. When trying to pay my bills I was totally ignored. I never even got help from the address you sent me, I emailed an old email address of a hospital employee who forwarded my message because mine had been ignored. She is the only person who replied in that time and in the first response she gave me the same email address you did. When I reached out again and told her I continued to have no success she helped, reaching out to everyone possible at the hospital to get me help.

I hope you know who I am talking about because I don’t want to put her name on here but she is a phenomenal employee and was so kind and wonderful to us while at the hospital and after and deserves to be recognized and rewarded for her work.

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