re: Medical Billing has gone mad

We had all this happen with my dad. His plane was diverted to El Paso from LAX to MSY and he was taken by ambulance from the airport to the hospital ER for what they thought was either a heart attack or stroke.

Admitted as a John Doe, even though he had his license on him.

By the time we got to him the next morning, we had to straighten out his name, give them his medical info (medicare and supplement) and update all demographics.

He ended up there for a week, including a couple of days in the ICU. About a month later we got a bill for over $150K. I called to deal with it. After all the time I spent in billing, they had not updated his billing info with his insurance info.

Not to mention the nightmare of when he actually had a stroke while visiting us in L.A. a year or so before that.

We kept getting bills for $25K+ ever month. And every month I'd call and talk to them and make sure they had his correct insurance info.

I finally got to their hospital admin people about 6 months later. She was a very nice lady who told me that he nor we were responsible for the bill and they were about to make a Demand to Pay to medicare since he was eligible. What a nightmare.

My sister and I both have Power of Attorney for my dad. I keep .pdf of it in my email just in case I have to handle things for him; I can just send it off really quickly.