My ordeal with this hospital's Newborn Hearing Screening program has been a nightmare! My daughter was born in January & I am still dealing with this mess 6 mo. later. First, they skipped my daughter's hearing screening when she was born (something that is done for ALL newborns). The next step was to go to a location in Brockton, MA where they sent an audiologist from this place to screen my baby and this was a nightmare. I was there with a baby and a toddler for 4 hours! I was told not to let the baby eat and sleep until I got there and that didn't work out so great. My baby was wide awake and hungry when I got there and was so overstimulated from being kept awake that she wouldn't go to sleep (and this audiologist doesn't do great testing if baby is awake, which by the way is possible if they had better equipment, not ancient stuff). Come to find out their faulty equipment said my baby failed the hearing test on one ear so we had to take time off work to bring her to this location in Brighton (an hour away from our home)! This entire time we are being told there is no charge for this screening because it is part of newborn hospital tests routinely done and it was not our fault the screener missed our baby. More than 2 months after my baby was seen at this center we get a hefty $275 bill (this clinic is trying to double dip if you ask me, charging again for their mistake)! Took 15 minutes & two reps in their billing department so I can talk to a human. Come to find out these billing reps are clueless. They couldn't give me a national provider ID for the provider that did my daughter's screening so I can request a referral because we are not responsible for their irresponsibility & shouldn't have to pay out of pocket. From getting a suitable appointment for us to get to Brighton to this whole billing issue everything has been a nightmare! First, the person who booked our appointment (who I spoke to at least 4 or 5 times) never gave us a NPI and failed to inform us that we should've obtained a referral. The many times I talked to her it would've been nice for her to tell us that since we have a HMO we will need a referral (but who new this people where billing AGAIN for a test they are responsible for). Staff and providers have some nerve telling patients this is part of a baby's newborn screening and then try to bill my insurance again for something they let slip through the cracks and is totally their fault. I have worked in medical administration (including referrals, billing, scheduling, insurance verification, etc) since 2009 and I make sure I send post cards & make phone calls to patients with info on how to obtain a referral & when I book an appointment with a patient who has a HMO. I give them our NPI, fax, and all the info they need to make sure they are not responsible for the office visit. This place clearly needs to train receptionists, billing staff, coordinators, schedulers, etc on how to properly schedule appointments for patients who need authorizations/referrals. What upsets me the most is that I didn't even get a phone call to be advised that they were billing again for my baby's hearing screening and that I would need a referral. Neither did they call me to tell me the claim was rejected because I didn't have a referral. I make every attempt to contact my patients when a claim is rejected to help them with getting their bill paid by insurance (that's what insurance is for). After all this (which still continues) nothing was wrong with my daughter's hearing, she passed just fine with better equipment sued the 2nd time (according to the 4 hour ordeal the 1st time around "results" stated she didn't pass on one ear, unbelievable). Oh and let's not forget trying to talk to human to get this sorted, get a NPI, etc. I called at least 5 phone numbers. I ended up calling an 800 # for their physician finder line and that was the only human I spoke to out of the 5 phone numbers I called that could give me a NPI. NEVER want to deal with this place again!
CG
