I finally received an itemized statement from a hospital/creditor of mine that filed a proof of claim.
On their proof of claim, they merely provided a general total billing for dates of service, and I had never previously received a bill for this particular date of service, because I was told (uninsured at the time) that it was covered in full by their "social services fund" provided by charitable donors and I didn't need to pay it at all.
Now I see that the charges include services that I specifically refused and did not receive on a certain date of service. Specifically a chest x-ray and a tetanus shot.
Granted these amounts are only a portion of the bill, and now I am lost in google hell with .... OMG.... 50 tabs open in my browser....
My question is: Do these charges for services NOT received invalidate the entire claim? Or can I only request a reduction in the claim for the specified amount of the false charges?
Is refusal to provide informed consent - or perhaps more accurately - coherent informed refusal
I saw no reason for a chest x-ray, since I already knew I couldn't afford this "visit" and I refused all of the ala carte menu of additional services they kept trying to push on me that I didn't think I really needed in the interest of economics. Basically I did get some stitches and an antibiotic. That's it. I declined the tetanus shot because I didn't need one. They have all kinds of weird lab work listed on there, too, that they never even asked me for permission for. I honestly (still) don't know if actually they did any of that or not. I guess I am going to have to request more records than I originally requested from them.
Incidentally, this proof of claim was provided to the BK court by a staff member of the billing department. The creditor is not currently represented by an attorney. Good for me, eh?
If I dispute this claim, I think I am going to go ahead and toss in a request for sanctions for failure to redact because they left my full social security number on the statement they submitted.
(This is a different hospital than I discussed in a previous thread by the way, I didn't raise a stink about the other one, since it wasn't my social security number, but the hospital account number that they didn't redact...)
On their proof of claim, they merely provided a general total billing for dates of service, and I had never previously received a bill for this particular date of service, because I was told (uninsured at the time) that it was covered in full by their "social services fund" provided by charitable donors and I didn't need to pay it at all.
Now I see that the charges include services that I specifically refused and did not receive on a certain date of service. Specifically a chest x-ray and a tetanus shot.
Granted these amounts are only a portion of the bill, and now I am lost in google hell with .... OMG.... 50 tabs open in my browser....
My question is: Do these charges for services NOT received invalidate the entire claim? Or can I only request a reduction in the claim for the specified amount of the false charges?
Is refusal to provide informed consent - or perhaps more accurately - coherent informed refusal
I saw no reason for a chest x-ray, since I already knew I couldn't afford this "visit" and I refused all of the ala carte menu of additional services they kept trying to push on me that I didn't think I really needed in the interest of economics. Basically I did get some stitches and an antibiotic. That's it. I declined the tetanus shot because I didn't need one. They have all kinds of weird lab work listed on there, too, that they never even asked me for permission for. I honestly (still) don't know if actually they did any of that or not. I guess I am going to have to request more records than I originally requested from them.
Incidentally, this proof of claim was provided to the BK court by a staff member of the billing department. The creditor is not currently represented by an attorney. Good for me, eh?
If I dispute this claim, I think I am going to go ahead and toss in a request for sanctions for failure to redact because they left my full social security number on the statement they submitted.
(This is a different hospital than I discussed in a previous thread by the way, I didn't raise a stink about the other one, since it wasn't my social security number, but the hospital account number that they didn't redact...)
Bankruptcy Wizard
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