Technetium
Junior Member
(not sure if this is the right forum for this)
I went in to Mass General Hospital several months ago because I believed I had good reason to think I had Lyme's Disease. I had several symptoms of it (fatigue, weakness, constant mild headache), and at the time I was hiking regularly in New Hampshire. I wanted to be tested for Lyme's Disease.
The doctors decided they were going to run some "standard" blood tests in addition to rule out anything else. The results of the blood tests were given to me while I was still at the ER (everything A-OK), and I was told I would be able to call in about 4 or 5 days to get the results of the Lyme's Disease test.
The first couple times I called, I was simply told that it hadn't been done yet. After the second time, the person on the phone told me it should have been done by now, so she was going to look into it. The call I got back on this issue was quite stunning. They had not done a Lyme's Disease test. Instead, the lab messed up and repeated the same blood tests (which I didn't even care about in the first place) that had been done while I was in the ER.
I received 2 separate bills in the mail (the physician's bill and the hospital bill) totalling around $1,600. I was not initially panicking because I was in the middle of applying for MassHealth (this is the state-funded Health Care coverage for low-income people, for those who don't know). Unfortunately, I was denied for MassHealth proper, though they said they would cover costs over $1,280 or so. This is a staggering bill for someone who makes $10/hour, so I called the hospital at this point to protest, as I was being charged for a bill that had nothing to do with what I went in for in the first place.
The hospital's consumer advocacy rep told me she would get back to me in a few days. When I did get a call back from her, she said only that, since the bill didn't include the cost of a Lyme's Disease test, I was only being charged for the blood tests, and therefore I would have to pay.
This seems terribly unfair to me. If I had known that I wasn't going to get a Lyme's Disease test, I would have walked out of there and not consented to any other tests. Are they allowed to do this to me? I am not well-educated on legal matters, but it would seem to me that they have already broken the contract by not doing the Lyme's Disease test.
Please help. Thanks.
-Justin
I went in to Mass General Hospital several months ago because I believed I had good reason to think I had Lyme's Disease. I had several symptoms of it (fatigue, weakness, constant mild headache), and at the time I was hiking regularly in New Hampshire. I wanted to be tested for Lyme's Disease.
The doctors decided they were going to run some "standard" blood tests in addition to rule out anything else. The results of the blood tests were given to me while I was still at the ER (everything A-OK), and I was told I would be able to call in about 4 or 5 days to get the results of the Lyme's Disease test.
The first couple times I called, I was simply told that it hadn't been done yet. After the second time, the person on the phone told me it should have been done by now, so she was going to look into it. The call I got back on this issue was quite stunning. They had not done a Lyme's Disease test. Instead, the lab messed up and repeated the same blood tests (which I didn't even care about in the first place) that had been done while I was in the ER.
I received 2 separate bills in the mail (the physician's bill and the hospital bill) totalling around $1,600. I was not initially panicking because I was in the middle of applying for MassHealth (this is the state-funded Health Care coverage for low-income people, for those who don't know). Unfortunately, I was denied for MassHealth proper, though they said they would cover costs over $1,280 or so. This is a staggering bill for someone who makes $10/hour, so I called the hospital at this point to protest, as I was being charged for a bill that had nothing to do with what I went in for in the first place.
The hospital's consumer advocacy rep told me she would get back to me in a few days. When I did get a call back from her, she said only that, since the bill didn't include the cost of a Lyme's Disease test, I was only being charged for the blood tests, and therefore I would have to pay.
This seems terribly unfair to me. If I had known that I wasn't going to get a Lyme's Disease test, I would have walked out of there and not consented to any other tests. Are they allowed to do this to me? I am not well-educated on legal matters, but it would seem to me that they have already broken the contract by not doing the Lyme's Disease test.
Please help. Thanks.
-Justin