Foul Ball

Nice telephone contact from the hospital: it has, after all, been 24 hours since I was released. How ya doing? Everything okay? Anything we can do for you? No?

Well ... then,

It seems that I slipped through the cracks and someone failed to get my down payment before services were rendered to the tune of $32k toted up in my name between 11:30 am Monday and 10:00 am Wednesday. At the very least, I should have stopped by the admitting office and paid before I left the hospital grounds, but, again, so sorry, someone didn't do their job.

Um, is this the admitting person who came to the ER to fill in all the paperwork or the admitting person who came to my room to fill in even more paperwork Tuesday who failed to do their job? I was pretty much a captive audience, so they had all the time in the world to tell me I owed them money before I left the hospital.

But no worry because I don't have to pay the full one thousand dollars I owe on the $32k bill until I actually get the bill, I just need to put a down payment on what I owe toward the total by the end of the work day tomorrow. How much? Well, usually half of the total amount the patient owes is expected.

I can pay in person or use a debit card over the phone, if that's more convenient. No, it really cannot wait until I'm sent the bill because the hospital requires that a payment be made at the time services are rendered, and since that wasn't done, they need to rectify their error ASAP.

Since learning the lesson well re: your procedure is scheduled for any time between 10 am and 1 pm and you'll be released to go home this evening, and being taken down to the cath lab at 5:30 pm and having to stay an extra 12 hours, it seems to me that I actually can take my own sweet time before I drop by and take care of this matter.

I wonder if I get to deduct for the meals I never got to eat?