SFist: Shady St. Luke's?

icbalaam

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:44:04 -0800

St. Luke is the patron saint of physicians, surgeons, butchers and billing departments*. He's not the patron saint of patients so it's no wonder people have gotten screwed. *Ok, so I made the last one up.

heartfeltman

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 07:18:08 -0800

I just want to say that I experienced a serious injury this Spring and found my dealings with St. Luke's...from the emergency room care to the eventual physical therapy to be fantastic. Billing issues have been swift and without error.

JLeisure

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:26:42 -0800

I have had a similar issue with St. Luke's charging me for services rendered two years earlier. They told me that I had a outstanding balance but I never received a bill that I owed them. Once I was able to reconcile the bill back to the services I was able to place a claim with my insurance and most of the $750 bill was covered. It would seem that St Luke's will have an audit and find uncollected money and figure the easiest way to get it is to go after a patient and hope questions are not asked.

bluecanary

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:54:45 -0800

That's how insurance companies operate. They stall and stall, figuring eventually you'll get sick of sitting on hold for hours at a time and let it go and pay it instead. Of every legitimate lawsuit brought against an insurance company, there are ten more that could have been brought, but weren't. I read that insurance companies are willing to take the gamble that you will be in one of the other 9. And the next time anyone compares our healthcare to France and says "but they pay more taxes" I'm kicking them in the balls as hard as I can. Fair warning.

RinconHillSF

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:09:36 -0800

Rant #2 AETNA Insurance will rip you and the hospital off any way they can. In my experience at another fine San Francisco hospital, my Aetna HMO doctor recommended I head to said hospital's emergency room. 7 months later, I get a bill from that hospital because AETNA kept refusing to pay the bill. 7 months for crying out loud (another calendar year, if you care)! Anyway, I ended up having to get the California Department of Health Care (http://www.hmohelp.ca.gov/default.aspx) involved ... the state order AETNA to pay the bill, and AETNA obeyed. After that experience, I have only one thing to say to anyone who tells me a government run health single-payer health insurance plan would be less efficient than one run by a private company - bull pies!

north

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:53:11 -0800

That can go with any hospital as I know from experience. Whatever you experience shouldnt represent the hospital as a whole, but those billing people are sometimes missing some screws in their heads. Its a must to confirm the charges on your account with a rep before paying anything.