ComplaintsforSt.Helena Hospital

• Initial Complaint

  04/15/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Due to the hospital's failure to cash a check I sent in mid-November, 2021 in a timely manner, I paid my **** a second time on December 31, 2021. I included a note indicating I had previously paid and providing check number and date assuming the 2nd check would be destroyed when they saw payment has previously been made since it would be unethical to accept double payment on the account. Both checks were eventually cashed. Phone calls to the hospital to arrange for a refund were unsuccessful. I obtained copies of my cancelled checks and wrote a letter to the hospital explaining the situation. I was contacted by *************************** from the hospital on February 18th by e-mail who assured me I would receive my refund within 30 days. It has now been ************************************************** the amount of $23.06. It seems pointless for me to continue to contact them as they do not seem interested in resolving this matter in a professional/ethical way. I'm sorry that I have no way to upload supporting documents, but the hospital has copies of my cancelled checks as well as a harassing letter they sent me saying my account was in arrears and asking for payment on a **** that had already been paid (twice). If there is anything you can do to help me get my refund and bring this matter to a close, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

  Business response

  05/04/2022

  Originally, I received a received patient dispute letter from the *************** director on 04/21/2021. Patient stated she had made two check (**** & ****) payments and both checks were chased and was due a refund.  Patient provided me with account number *******, which is not our account number.  When I located patient by name and date of birth in our system, patient had a hospital encounter (***********) that showed a zero balance.  Upon further review I discovered account number ******* belong to the physician ****.   Our physicians are contracted to work for our hospital, but we do not do the billing for the physicians.  *********** that handles the physician billing for St. ****** ********************** is  called *********************** a courtesy, I called Sierra ****** at ************ and spoke to an ****** who informed me they do the billing for the physicians and they will issue patient statements, but all the payments are issued to the hospital billing department.  Once payments are received then the hospital billing department post the payment and notifies Sierra ****** of patient payment and patient account are updated on their end.  If patient is due a refund, then she would request a patient refund from the hospital billing department, which mat take up to 60 days.  ****** stated she has emailed the hospital billing department of patient refund and no one has responded.

  On 04/28/2022 I emailed the cash posting supervisor and manager regarding this situation and I was informed by the cash posting supervisor the St ****** billing office has closed.  The cash posting supervisor has located one of patient payments and she is currently in contact with someone at the main hospital and the clinic in order to locate patient second payment.

  On 05/03/2022 I sent another message to the cash posting supervisor regarding patient refund and she stated she has reached out to Accounting in order to get patient her refund.  I am pending a return response from her.

  Thank you

  ***************************|Patient Experience Specialist Lead |

  Adventist ****** Central Valley

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩