Having To Fight Every Inch Of The Way

The past few days have been really rough.

First After suffering through for nearly 5 days with severe abdomen and stomach pains from the upper endoscopy, the pains have finally stopped. That was the worst pain I've felt in over 4 months.

Monday was literally the worst day. I was on the phone 5 times with the Gastro Clinic about my Crohn's Med's. Because when we went to the pharmacy they told us the Entocort (steroid to treat crohn's disease) was going to cost me $385.00 with my prescription drug plan. We were FREAKING OUT! So we called the gastro clinic, and they got busy calling the pharmacy asking why the medicine is costing this much even with the generic brand?

Then while dealing with this the mail comes and I get another medical bill that I'm NOT suppose to be getting, from the worst hospital in my opinion in the entire south central Ohio area "Adena" I don't even know why they have a billing department. Here is why I ask this question....

I go to Adena to have a test done or in this instance I went to the ER. I wait sometimes up to 3 months before I get a bill. The hospital is located in Chillicothe Ohio, but the bill comes from Michigan! Then when you are to mail the bill back and make your payment to "Adena" in chillicothe Ohio you mail it NOt to Chillicothe Or To Michigan where the bill came from, NO you mail back to Cleveland Ohio! However, when you have a complaint like we always do because we are getting bills from Michigan that we aren't suppose to be getting or we are getting double bills and they may just be double billing Medicare and screwing them over too. We have to call the phone number listed on the bill. The phone number is to Chillicothe Ohio Adean Hospital, not Michigan where the bill came from. So then you get the opportunity to talk to people who have no idea why we are getting the bills we are getting and they have to then go into their billing department computers that seem to be in Chillicothe Ohio but are being printed in Michigan and then processed in Cleveland Ohio to try and get this all fixed!

So upon receiving a bill I'm not suppose to and now reading the above story that we go through nearly every month. And dealing with possibly having to pay $385.00 for one prescription you know I'm freaking out completely!

At the same time all this is going on, my Friend Dawn comes over to try and cheer me up by giving me 2 Jeremy Camp T-shirts her and Gary bought for Jeremy and I at the Concert on Sunday that we had to miss because of the Crohn's acting up. I'm so thankful she was there for a short time because she saw what I was going through and I was having to deal with it all on my own because Jeremy was in class.

So after 5 phone calls from the Gastro clinic they finally some how some way got the Entocort prescription down to $85.00 from $385.00. The lady from the Gastro clinic even said she doesn't understand what the people at my pharmacy were doing and how they got the price of $385.00 for that prescription.

I can work with $85.00 because we still don't know how long I'm going to have to be on this medicine before the Crohn's goes into remission and this prescription will last me over 3 months.

Everything got worked out after nearly 8 hours of fighting and my stress level finally started to go back to normal.

But let me vent a little more about "Adena" Hosptial.......

So after reading all that we go through nearly monthly just to get a bill from them, oh it's not over.

This happened about 4 months ago....
One month when we mailed our bill to them, they say they never received it and without warning a month later when our next bill was do instead of a bill saying they didn't receive the previous months bill, we receive a letter saying they have turned us over to a collection agency! My bill for this hospital is over 10,000 dollars and now that they have turned us over to collections they have added on over 2,000 dollars of interest!

My husband Jeremy was on the phone fighting this for nearly an hour. First off we weren't receiving a bill every month from Adena to pay our monthly payment sometimes we wouldn't get a bill for 2 months and then we'd get one double billing us because they didn't send us a bill every month. Then there was the other time we didn't get a bill for over 3 months and then we called and told them about it now mind you we are calling Chillicothe Ohio the bill is being sent from Michigan. So they say they will send a bill out right a way to us so we can pay.

Now that we are dealing with them turning us over to collections because some how the bill that was sent from Michigan and then we mailed to Cleveland Ohio didn't make it and got lost some how. My husband brings this up and how their billing department is completely a mess and this isn't our fault and we shouldn't be turned over to collections because we are trying to pay our bills.

So to make things right and get out of collections my husband pays 3 months worth of payments when he only had to pay 2 months just to be safe. But here is where it gets ugly...the person on the phone in Chillicothe Ohio says, "it is not our responsibility (meaning Adena) to send you a bill every month, and if you don't pay your bill monthly we will turn you over to collections again!"

HOW the heck are you to pay a bill if you don't receive one and know how much you are paying and how much you have paid? My husband was fuming mad! This person was threatening us!
So to stop this from ever happening again and the bill we mailed getting "lost" we now call every month and pay the bill over the phone, but guess what that doesn't work either.

Because, just a month later after going through this and paying the 150 dollars and being threatened by this "billing department person" who in my opinion is nothing but a con-artist in a cubical we find out when we call the next month to pay our bill, (that we actually got a bill in the mail for dispite what that person said about not having to send bills out) that the 150 dollars we paid was in the computer system but was never credited to our account!!!!!! So this new billing department person we're dealing with has to not only add the 150 dollars to our account that should have been added a month ago but also add on our new payment for the current month!

Luckily since then we have been getting regular bills, but now we are getting double billed and receiving bills we should not have even been billed for because Adena messed up AGAIN! This is the worst hospital billing department EVER!

one day last month while fighting to get a bill removed that I wasn't suppose to have been billed I for asked the "billing department" person on the phone, "I have a question, why is it that when I get a bill it comes from Michigan, and when I mail the bill out it goes to Cleveland Ohio, but when I have to talk to someone about the bill that came from Michigan I have to call and talk to someone in Chillicothe Ohio?" The lady on the phone says, "ma'am I honestly don't know."

Ok, my question is how do these people get this job? Because you have to have a college education to do this job, yet every time I have to deal with someone in that dept. they don't know what is going on or why things are happening to me and my bills? This has not been a year fight, I have been fighting with this hospital for over 4 years now! 4 YEARS!!!! And still people (and different people) in that department don't know what is going on! Holy Crap I think it's time to get a new billing department!

This is why I refuse to go back to this hospital. The last time I was actually admitted to this hospital and stayed there, they tried to give me the wrong medication!!!! THANK GOD I have worked in the nursing field because if I hadn't looked in that pill cup and questioned what was in it, I could have possibly died. When I found out what one of meds were that they were trying to give me I said, I'm not suppose to be taking that I don't have that wrong with me. And immediately I said I wanted patient advocate in my room NOWWWWWWW!

Come to find out that not only were they trying to give me the wrong meds but nurses had been signing off that they had been giving me a medicine that they HADN'T! Not only did the hospitals pharmacy mess up but the nurses were also negligent. And because of this I got one out of the 3 days I was in that hospital written off because if they had been giving me the right meds I would have been out of the hospital sooner. Oh and while all this was going on there was a fire that broke out on the floor above me and that floor had to be evacuated. Luckily I haven't had to stay in a hospital since then and that was the beginning of 2008.

To anyone that stays in a hospital be proactive with your care! I can never emphasis this enough. Never take things at face value, if you are brought a pill to take, ask what it is for and why they are giving it to you. Because asking just might save your life! Remember nurses and doctors are human and humans make mistakes. So don't play Russian roulette with your life. And if you feel you or a family member isn't being treated properly at a hospital or nursing/rehab center you have the right to ask for PATIENT ADVOCATE! You have rights so use them.

Ok I'm done venting about hospitals now....

To get back on track I'm doing better after 5 days of suffering through horrible abdomen pains and sleepless nights and maxing out my pain meds.

I'm still not completely better, and wont really ever be but at least I'm getting back to my "normal" self. Still taking all my meds, but luckily not any pain meds.

It's always a good day when I'm not in severe pain, no matter what I may be dealing with.