I really hate St John's Health systems

[RecycleMichael]

I just need to vent.

I was in the hospital a couple of times in June and am trying to pay my medical bills. One bill is for $168 to St. John's Anesthesia Services.

I call the phone number and they never answer instead say all their people are busy, then give me an answering machine. I leave a message and they never call back. I called Friday and Monday ten times. All I have on the bill is a P.O. box so I can't even go and pay this bill in person.

The bill is dated July 1st, but I postmarked July 5th. It says in bold print that the bill is due on July 16th. Last time I disputed a bill that I thought my insurance should have covered, St John's sent it to a collection agency even though it was less than 30 days overdue. My insurance ended up paying the bill, but not before my credit score got dinged.

The billing system at St. John's and the system is just screwed up. I don't know any other way than to say I hate them.

[Conan71]

I don't understand.

Are you trying to figure out if your bill is post-benefit?  If you are sure you owe the full amount, just mail it in.  They won't ding your credit over a bill for services which were rendered in the last 30 days, I'm pretty certain.

FYI- glad you hear you are up and about and feeling much better.  You gave us all a little scare.

[RecycleMichael]

I am trying to pay it with my flex-plan. I put $2,000 in a company flex-plan to pay medical bills and if I don't use it, I lose it.

[guido911]

I am trying to pay it with my flex-plan. I put $2,000 in a company flex-plan to pay medical bills and if I don't use it, I lose it.

Very smart (I mean, for a dem  )

[nathanm]

The billing system at St. John's and the system is just screwed up. I don't know any other way than to say I hate them.

This doesn't help the situation at hand, but if you still have the other medical "collection" on your credit report, you can easily get it off. It's against the law for them to leave it there once you've paid. HIPAA's privacy regs are actually good for something.

Nasty letters to the CA involved will provide excellent results.

[Gaspar]

This doesn't help the situation at hand, but if you still have the other medical "collection" on your credit report, you can easily get it off. It's against the law for them to leave it there once you've paid. HIPAA's privacy regs are actually good for something.

Nasty letters to the CA involved will provide excellent results.

+1  you beat me to it.

[Gaspar]

I think this is indeed strange.  My wife had cancer last year.  We had a couple thousand outside of our plan that we had to pay for.  We just "let it ride" and payed a couple hundred a month until it was paid.  They never dinged our credit.  We got some nasty little pink letters, but no credit reporting.

Funny thing is that she had to have a full body scan a couple of weeks ago to ensure that she is still cancer free.  The bill was $7,000 for the scan that only took about half an hour to perform.  Insurance reimbursed the procedure in full.  We figured we would at least owe a couple hundred.

[Conan71]

This doesn't help the situation at hand, but if you still have the other medical "collection" on your credit report, you can easily get it off. It's against the law for them to leave it there once you've paid. HIPAA's privacy regs are actually good for something.

Nasty letters to the CA involved will provide excellent results.

You might double-check that, unless something has changed in the consumer credit code.  It's factually correct if you've had a medical collection account.  Showing a balance after you've paid it off would be wrong for them to do and they have a responsibility to show a zero balance if it's been paid, but I don't think they have to remove the record showing you had an account any more than a credit card company has to remove a record of you having once had one of their cards, unless it's been over seven years.