medical research won't pay

[adevine]

What is the name of your state? IN
1998 my husband had an aurota anuerysm. Medtronics was testing a new stent which depended on him to have follow up checkups every year for the rest of his life, for which Medtronics would pay. After the stent was approved by the government, Medtronics stopped paying for these visits. He had had two checkups that required further surgery. Now the visits are once a year. We do not know what happened to the twice yearly. We can't afford to pay for these visits and we said so from the beginning. Each visit involves the hospital, radiology, and the doctor so the bills are high. Now the hospital and xray co. have sent bills to the CA. Senex last letter said they were "referring us to legal counsel with recommendation to file suit." We sent certified lettes in March to Medtronics and copies to everyone involved along with a copy of pay stub from my husband's job.
We have heard nothing from Medtronics and it's time for another yearly visit which without leaves for more chances for early death. How do I handle this CA and we are getting letters from a CA for radiology. All OC know the story. They should press Med., not us.Thank you for any help.

[Joe Schmoe]

Do you have anything in writing that says that Medtronics agreed to pay?

[adevine]

yes, that was the reason we did the research rather than the regular surgery

[adevine]

I have talked with many of the professional services involved with this Medtronics Anuerx study. These are the manangement peple who handle the finances for the doctors and hospitals. I am finding out that there are several people across the country including the patients, the hospitals, the radiologists, and the doctors who are all disappointed with the way that Medtronics stopped paying for promised services after the stent was approved by the FDA. It has been suggested to me by some of these people to start discussing this on the internet to see how many have been affected by this. So that is what I am going to do. If anyone knows of anyone particpating in this research, please pass this on. Or if anyone has any ideas where to post, please help. These patients are wearing stents, having annual checkups until they die. All information goes to Medtronics, even their bodies when they die. All expenses are now being carried by the patients or research subjects or the professionals aren't getting paid what they deserve.
Please no sacarsm. No one is trying to get out of anything. We just want to start support to contact Medtronics to get some help.
thank you

[ConnorW]

If you have something in writing that says that they were going to pay for all medical bills, etc for the rest of your husband's life and they have stopped paying then they are in breach of the contract, unless they had a clause saying otherwise. Contact an attorney, there are a lot of them out there that specialize in medical related lawsuits. If you can find a total of 5 people who had the same surgery, etc that your husband did and are getting the same run around find an attorney and launch a class action. It only takes 5 people to make a class action.

If you can find 4 other people and your husband is willing do a search for "class action" on any search engine and you'll find links to attornies and sites, if you want to narrow the results down use "medical class action".

But definately contact an attorney, many offer a free 30 minute consultation to see exactly what options you have open to you. Chances are without legal action they won't decide to start paying again.

[adevine]

Connor, thanks . The doctor's office manager and I went over the original contract and the wording is there but vague. And I will run those search engines you gave me. We need help in finding more people involved with this research, so we can together approach Medtronics, hopefully without a lawsuit.
This aorta anuerysm is similar to what John Ritter just died with so I am also, since this happened to us, on a campaign to tell all men 40 and above to have this checked. I have two friends whose lives were saved because of my preaching. I am going to post on other sites to get names.
Send me some good sites. (and send people to me who you may have heard have stents.)

From reading some of these other posts about hospitals and bills, we will tell the research agent here that we can not pay before she sets our annual appointment and see if the hospital will still take us. They already know that though.

The doctor's office manager and I went over the original contract and the wording is there but vague.

Take the contract to an attorney. NOT a doctor's office manager.

[adevine]

I didn't take the contract to the manager. The doctor has not received payment for my husband's checkups and we were dicussing that when we together read the contract. She has other patients in the same situation.
And we will go to the attorney. We need more people.

You do NOT need more people to contest this. If the attorney tells you the language in the contract is such that payment was to be made for the life of the patient, then you have every legal right to proceed in a lawsuit.

And you should. Your suit can, at a later date, be rolled into a class-action if enough people join. But, there is no legitimate reason to wait. And I would not.

[ConnorW]

adevine -

Go to the attorney, get YOUR situation on the road to being taken care of. At this point if you can get other people on board, great.

Once you see an attorney and if the attorney says that you have grounds for legal action because Medtronics is fialing to honor the contract, let the doctor know about it. Then if you feel strongly you can work on the class action.

[adevine]

Thanks, you guys. That's exactly what I will do.
About the letter from Senex: It states RE: our name et al
account originator-hospital et al.
client reference no**************
What does the et al mean? I thought it meant "and others"
The client ref number goes back to the first of 8 surgeries in 1998, so I know that would be timebarred now. The last activity was early that year when we submitted an application to the hospital for hardship financing and have never heard from anyone since. The amount of money claimed due is totally different from anyway I try to figure for that reference number. Insurance paid and all that remained on that bill was $500.
Since we have been in and out of that hospital each year since, can they add other bills to this? Hope I explained this clearly.

It does mean "and others"

[adevine]

What could it mean? our name "and others" who? What others?
and the hospital "and others" who could that mean? the client reference number is right there. Wouldn't it mean refering to that one and that only one procedure. Everything else in that year is paid. It's the following years that we have difficulty with. And they all have different reference numbers. Thank you.

It states RE: our name et al

Without seeing the entire letter I can't give you a definitative answer. But a good guess would be this is a form letter sent out to all hospitals and patients who participated in the study.