Community Chat

[151949]

Several months ago I had a sleep study done. My medicare advantage plan is supposed to pay 100% for this if it is done in a freestanding facility and not a hospital. If it is done in a hospital I have to pay 30%. I was careful when I had it scheduled to ask the girl who works at my doctor's office to schedule it at a freestanding facility. The place where it was done was a medical office building - all doctor's offices except for the one office where the test was done. It is 7 miles from Venice Hospital.However , the facility is owned by Venice Hospital and they billed it as a inpatient procedure so the insurance will not pay the 30 % - I called the hospital billing department to ask them to correct the bill and they said the facility is billed the same as if it was done at the hospital because they don't have a license as a freestanding facility, they operate under the license of the hospital.I told them I will not pay the 30% because it is subtrafuge. Just because they are calling it inpatient doesn't mean it is. The place was horrible - you slept in a cubicle with no walls just partitions and I could hear and smell the person next to me passing gas all night. There was only one bathroom for all 6 patients that were there to share and no shower so we all had to get washed in the same sink( I waited til I got home).They didn't even give you a glass of water to drink.I was sooo thirsty.And now I find out the place isn't even licensed. I am considering calling the department of health- how could it be legal to run an outpatient facility and just tack it onto the hospital's license?And to make people have to pay $2000 because they are3 fradulently billing??