Comments by YaHooSis48
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Posted on April 29 at 9:30 p.m.
Gemini,I will find out more about the processes used by CBCS. I honestly thought they would set payments of some sort up with you. I'll look into this so that I can speak more knowledgeably about them. This is not normally an area I get into. Once an account goes to collection someone else handles them. Please understand, once CBCS gets the account, it has gone on for some months with no resolution and in many cases not even a contact from the patient. In other cases possibly like yours the only resolution to purge our system is that it goes to outside collection because it simply would cost us too much to continue to manage it. We do offer 9 months from the date of service with no interest on our accounts. I do realize that the deductibles, copays, and coinsurance that are being left as patient responsibility these days is devastating. It is almost impossible for families to pay an account off in 9 months sometimes. Once again, thats why we offer Corefirst Bank as a resolution.
Posted on April 29 at 9:20 p.m.
BiscuitBoy, I can understand your frustration. Late charges occur when a department doesn't meet their deadline for putting your charges on your account. The account then is coded in the medical records department and the bill drops for electronic billing. Each department gets 7-10 days to get those charges on your account. Once the diagnosis is added then if the claim passes all audits a claim is filed electronically and in your case to Medicare. On your account all of this happened, but then one of the departments that provided service to you found an error and corrected their charges. Well this is all fine and dandy except that for some reason no one caught the error. I must confess, it appears due to human error.I agree, it should have never happened. It should have been found before your balance went to the bank. We do take our Medicare billing very seriously and go thru many in house audits as well as outside audits to be sure that we are doing a good job. In your case; sir, it appears we failed the test. I know that when tables are turned and I am a patient, I match every line item,every date of service, and every total amount billed to my insurance and I assure you, it better balance out. You did a good job of evaluating your claim and your Medicare explanation of benefits. My hat is off to you sir. Medicare demands very detailed line item billing, specific codes,types of bills,just extremely detailed billing. In fact all billing is based on Medicare guidelines. What happened to you was human error even with all the checks and balances in place. I just wish we had discovered this error in a more timely fashion. Once again, my hat is off to a pretty sharp cookie!
Posted on April 29 at 8:25 p.m.
Gemini, it's not laughable at all! This tells me you must have had a pretty good income until you lost it. I must assume also that there are no children in the home. Our assistance program is based on federal poverty guidelines. I also must assume that you did not have medical bills exceeding a portion of you income as this in itself would have qualified your for a special payment program if you failed the charity assistance program. When all of these factors do not qualify you for a discount or write off, then we look at Corefirst for assistance. I noted earlier that we are a healthcare provider and not a bank. We can stretch your payments over 60 months or a minimum payment of 25.00 per month. I have seen people as I mentioned earlier whose illness simply bankrupts them. I agree this is a sad place to find one's self in; especially in America. Bless your heart, I do wish a remedy had been found. We try to use all tools available to us when helping our patients.
Posted on April 29 at 2:44 p.m.
Gemini,it sure sounds to me like you should have asked for financial assistance with your bill. I do know that we were able to help many of the Tyson families with charity care when their jobs were terminated.I truly do feel for you. I am not familiar with your particular case, nor am I with any of the above,but I might give a word of advise in these difficult times- - -PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL THE COMPANY WHO IS SENDING YOU BILLS! It does sound like you should have applied for charity assistance with your bill. Now keep in mind, if you have a boat, a motorcycle, a five bedroom mansion,etc your assests probably will work against you. I just stress that our staff is there to help. You will not find people with bigger hearts anywhere in your community than at Newman Regional Health! We are real people just like you. Many of us with critical health issues in our families or ourselves. We deal with the same tragedies as you do. We are indeed sensitive to your financial needs. Some of us have lost everthing due to health problems and had to file bankruptcy. This is unfortunate, but that's what happens when you have serious illness, like brain tumors, Stage III cancer, hepatitis, and crohn's disease. Now for the issue of Healthwave and Medicaid. These are federal and state programs designed for the medically needy and underserved population in our community. We accept these forms of payments according to the rules and guidelines given to us by mandates of the state and federal government. I am thankful for this system that cares for our elderly and young and those in need who can't care for themselves. Those will always be among us.
Posted on April 29 at 2:23 p.m.
BiscuitBoy! I might recall your account. Please let me assure you that we have all types of audits in place to prevent issues like yours from happening and I am very sorry that you had a problem with us. I truly do hope you give us the opportunity to serve you another time. Please call patient accounts if so and ask for me, I will personally handle your account. All providers of care hate having billing errors; however, they do happen on occasion, but when brought to our attention, we will work diligently to correct them. We value each of our patients. We want you to be happy and healthy and we want to be proud of the services we provide to you. My job as a patient representative is to answer all questions to your satisfaction or find someone with the answer within 48 hours. You have a right to ask and we have a responsibility to answer. I do hope that your next service with us is a positive one and I for one will do my best to provide that for you.
Posted on April 29 at 2:09 p.m.
Dear friends:NRH must treat all people equally. Everyone who applys for charity assistance must provide the same information and meet the same criteria for help. We will always have those who are simply not fiscally responsible and have no intention of paying their bills or responding to our letters and calls so we can help them. They just simply don't care. Now gooseylucy; your health insurance company surely sent you an explanation of payment advising you what they paid,what the write off was, and what you owed. You have no excuse for not calling our office for payment arrangements. We certainly cannot call everyone individually. Each of the Patient Representatives in the Patient Accounts office handle at least 20,000 accounts each. When your insurance company tells us you owe, we send the bill to you. It sounds goosey that you may want to take a little responsibility for your misfortune as 4 statements and a final notice goes out to the patient advising them about their balance. This is on top of your insurance companies EOB. Now if you move, you have a responsibility to let us know. When our statements are not delivered, they come back to us with the new address or in some cases unable to deliver no forwarding address. When this happens 3 times in a row, we purge our accounts by having an outside collection agency start the process of collection. Please do keep in mind that Newman Regional Health IS NOT A BANK, but a health care provider. We are not in the banking business, that's why we offer extended time to pay by using a bank. Many people say, "oh my credit isn't good enough" but guess what ALL OF OUR PATIENTS qualify for this service, there is no application process,
Posted on April 25 at 12:04 p.m.
Dear kssmalltown, I can assure you that Newman Regional Health does not "go after" anyone. If we can write off to charity we would much rather do this than purge the account by turning it to an outside collection agency. The accounts that end up in bad debt are the ones we cannot get to respond to us or supply us with documents that prove they are indeed needy. I am very proud of the Fiscal Services Dept because we are very sensitive to the mounting needs of our community and to those who are just passing thru. It has become very evident that needs are increasing. More people cannot afford health insurance or have recently lost jobs and have been placed in a position where they simply cannot pay for health insurance. NRH is there to treat these people and find funding for them. When all other resources have been exhausted we also offer Corefirst Bank loans with no application process. All of our patients qualify. Yes, we do have employees who qualify for charity care. All patients must meet the same criteria; regardless of who they are. We are constantly fitting the patient to the program that will benefit them best, whether that is thru the State of Kansas, Jones Foundation, a federal Trail Blazer Program, Charity write off or discount and for those who don't qualify we assist them with a Corefirst loan. I am thankful for the indigent programs NRH has for Emporia. I know first hand that I work with a great staff in Fiscal Services and Social Services to identify the patients who need our help. Our community hospital has never and will never turn any patient away. Our first concern is that person's well being,health and safety.
Posted on April 15 at 8:17 p.m.
OpenEyes,I tend to agree with you! I have a stack of documents that I want Doug to sign and I prefer he take no time to read them,as President of the United States, I won and I might possibly have an agenda I don't want anyone to have time to figure out. That agenda is apparently, "YES WE CAN, bankrupt America!" By the way, as an American, I have the right to bellyache! In fact I believe that so many of us are getting fed up that you will soon see these Americans rise up and demand to be heard. I think you will see more and more interested in politics and begin voting out some of the lying,cheating,greedy SOB's who are in right now. The time for tolerance has passed! This is America, we don't redistribute wealth, WE EARN IT! It is very hard to stand back and watch a young pup like Obama destroy our grandchildren's future. It makes me a bit sick that he is getting his administrative experience in the highest position in the land. We cannot spend our way out of debt.We need to be cutting Big Government, not adding to it. In closing, might I add: DON'T STEAL, the government hates competition!!!!
Posted on April 7 at 9:33 p.m.
What the heck does PETA or any of your comments have to do with workshops for animal advocates? These workshops are for shelter and rescue groups! The workshops will give animal advocates more tools to save the lives of abused and abandoned animals.
There will be some very esteemed and respected speakers at these conferences. Dr. Steve Notaro, University of Illinois Strategic Planning, Statistics, Ethics President,Illinois Animal Welfare Federation will be one of the special guest. Susan Shaw, CARE Feline Rescue @ Orange County Animal Services Advisory Board will be another speaker. Sue Sternberg, Founder & Director at Roundout Valley Animals for Adoption will be there as well as Lynn Katz who is the Shelter Outreach Specialist with Petfinder.com.
This is going to be a fantastic experience for coalition building among shelter and rescue organizations across the state of Kansas and beyond!
The hope is to provide leadership for regional and statewide projects while lending support to organizations and promoting collaboration and partnerships.
Interested people can email rockinpaw@cableone.net for more information.
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Posted on May 31 at 7:32 p.m.
Nancy LeClear was a wonderful marketing person for NRH and it sounds like she still is! A fabulous motivational speaker and a gentle person. I got to interact w/ Dr. Hopper and really enjoyed his stories. I also enjoyed seeing the loving care and tenderness that Nancy directed towards her parents. Nancy, I will miss you! However; I lost my job at NRH so I probably wont't be seeing you much now.
On Family tradition ends after seven decades-plus