Dear Source:
I am Inge Moorman and work for the USDoD in Germany. I am a subscriber to the St. Croix Source and read articles regularly. This morning the article "Luis Hospital Taking Multiple Financial Hits, CEO Tells Senators" by Bill Kossler caught my attention and raised my temperature. They are short of $41 million in annual unpaid-for patient care. I am not surprised. They need to send their bills in a timely manner. I was on my daughter's computer in San Antoinio, Tx, where I am on vacation. When I first tried to respond to the article my message got lost. I copied and pasted your e-mail address and the article name and author to my own aol. account and hope you will receive and accept it.
This is my situation:
In December 2007, I traveled to St. Croix for surgery with a highly recommended physician and support from family members during my recovery period.
I received services at the Luis Hospital from 12/10/2007 to 12/14/2007. Bills from private physicians arrived within 4-6 weeks.
I participate in a Government Flexible Spending Plan, where I prepay a certain amount each pay-period and can reclaim money for eligible expenses. In this case the deadline was 30 April 2007. I flew back to St. Croix on 05 April 2008 for a week and went to the hospital's billing department in person. I was given a patient-copy print out of itemized expenses totaling $14,798.31, and was assured that a bill would be sent to my insurance carriers. I was told it would take about 30 days for the primary insurance carrier to process the claim. When I e-mailed my insurance carrier in May/June 2008, no claim had arrived. Where does this leave me? My insurance carriers have time limits for claims. I am not willing to pay this amount out-of pocket because the Luis hospital is negligent in billing. I would love to write them a letter, but my print-out doesn't give a postal address.
I would be very appreciative if someone could help me get this issue resolved. If they need money, they need to bill!
Thank you very much for the chance to voice my concern!
Inge Moorman
Germany
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