ASHEBORO N.C. (ACME NEWS) – Patients are expressing confusion and anger over new billing policies put in place after the Atrium and Wake Forest Health merger.
Several months ago, we began to be contacted by local residents who were confused, upset, and seeking answers after hospital bills they received from Wake Forest Health were sent to collections while they were still making payments.
“The hospital bill itself after insurance was only a couple hundred dollars” said Susan, who asked we not use her last name as she was worried about being dichared from the health network for speaking out. “Thats a couple hundred dollars I didn’t have right away due to being out on medical leave without income.”
Susan says that she couldn’t afford the minimum monthly payment of $50 and the billing department wasn’t willing or able to lower that amount.
“I was paying $25 a month because that’s what I could afford,” said Susan. Despite actively paying on her bill, every month since July, Susan said in December, rather than a bill she got a letter from collections. It didn’t make any sense, the account had been past due for a while, because there was no way I could afford the minimum and no one told me they were going to send it to collections. I was actively paying the bill, so why, and why now?” said Susan.
Susan said she called the patient billing office and was told a new policy required that bills be paid off in ‘3 to 4 statements’.
“Is that three to four past due statements or total statements?” She says she wrote an email to the billing supervisor, but got no response. “What’s really confusing is why if they wrote the bill off to collections why is it still showing as a balance in MyWakeHealth billing page?”
Susan’s story contains all the elements of what we heard from other patients who did not wish to go on the record.
Another patient who reached out, Ron, said that he had went to stay with family after being dischared since he couldn’t afford to stay at a facility. While he didn’t want to go on the record, he shared that Atruim had sent the bill to his house, and by the time he returned and found the bill, only a “month or two” later, it had already be sent to collections and customer service stated they were unable to help, even though he had the money to pay it.
Acme News attempted to contact both the Patient Financial Services Department Supervisor at Wake Health as well as multiple contacts for Atrium Wake Health’s Public Relations department by both phone and email, over the span of a month, to try and get answers about the new billing policies. However, none of the emails or voicemails were answered.
Susan, is left angry; “My insurence company sent them a check for tens of thosands of dollars from the claim, now, even though I was working on paying what I could on the last couple hundred dollars, they sent it to collections which hurts my ability to get a car or apartment, it’s shameful.
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