GILBERT, AZ (AZFamily) — Life with two little ones is busy.
“It’s fun now because you learn so much from the first,” Jordan Sherry said.
“We cherish the snuggles a little more,” Elizabeth Sherry added.
The Gilbert couple celebrated their son’s first birthday months ago, and even after the confetti settled, a $9,035 bill from his birth still loomed because of a paperwork problem.
“A year later, this hits you in the face,” Jordan said. “You’re like, wait. What?”
“You would think having the baby would be the hard part,” Elizabeth said. “Not paying the bills afterwards.”
The couple said they checked into Chandler Regional Medical Center and handed over one insurance card for Elizabeth and another for the baby, who is on a separate insurance plan.
“We gave it to them right up front,” Jordan said.
Here’s the problem: the Sherrys say the hospital incorrectly billed Elizabeth’s insurance company for the baby.
“They’re telling us that they can’t bill our insurance anymore,” Jordan said. “The hospital continues to say it breaches their contract, and they can’t send it in, and there’s nothing they can do about it.”
The couple got the correct insurance company involved and went back and forth with the hospital multiple times.
“They have the card,” Elizabeth said. “That’s what’s so mind-boggling.”
“Then what kills you is when the insurance company has actually called the hospital and said, ‘We will pay this claim. Just send us the bill,’ and here we are,” Jordan added.
The couple said they were told the bill would be sent to collections.
“They’re trying to scare us into paying the bill because I think they know they made the mistake,” Jordan said. “This could happen to anybody.”
“Providers often throw out the word collections because they know that you’ll suddenly ramp up your attention,” said Patricia Kelmar with PIRG, a consumer protection nonprofit.
Kelmar says there is one important step to take for anyone challenging a medical bill.
“Let your provider and insurance know you’re disputing the bill, and that puts a pause on any collections until the dispute is resolved,” she explained.
On Your Side reached out to Dignity Health about the billing dispute with Elizabeth and Jordan.
“We are working directly with the family and the insurance company to resolve this matter,” a spokesperson for Dignity Health wrote in an email. “Because of federal privacy laws, we are unable to provide additional information.”
The couple filled in the blanks.
“Since you’ve reached out to the hospital, they definitely got the message,” Jordan said. “They have waived our bill, and they took responsibility for the situation and promised us we won’t owe anything going forward. It’s amazing. We spent months working on this with no avail, and it’s amazing that you guys got involved, and it didn’t even take five days.”
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