Consumer complaint received 2021-01-31
Company: CMRE Financial Services, Inc.
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
On the XX/XX/XXXX Date of Service, I attended an Emergency Room visit at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX, CA XXXX ( related to file # XXXX ) after being given incorrect information by an employee about the type of treatment they would have been able to provide. Essentially, they were not able to provide the services that were asked about, and my ER visit was less than 10 minutes with no treatment, evaluation or diagnosis, which resulted in a {$1300.00} bill. As a result, the hospital later significantly adjusted/reduced my bill for this visit because 1 ) I would not have attended the facility if not for the employee 's misinformation, and 2 ) a coding error was made on my Date of Service, which was part of the large aforementioned bill.

As of recently, I received a separate bill for {$82.00} from the physician 's billing office ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX | Account # XXXX | XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX ) of the doctor who met with me on the Date of Service. It should be noted that I only received one notice for this bill, which arrived to my home in XX/XX/XXXX, after it had already been sent to collections ( CMRE Collections | XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Account # XXXX ) without providing me any other written ( mail ), phone or email notice beforehand. Immediately following, I got in touch with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( the billing office ) and asked that they reevaluate the bill so that it could be adjusted according to the coding and misinformation errors. I then provided them with all relevant paperwork from the hospital 's bill reduction, as well as my own signed/written statement on the matter. 

Initially, the physician 's billing office denied the adjustment, stating that the bill amount was correct despite the hospital realizing that my initial bill was incorrect and changing it. Before submitting a second evaluation of my bill adjustment request with the physician 's billing office, I was told by that I needed to have the hospital that I treated with on my Date of Service ( XXXX XXXX XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX, CA XXXX ) send them documentation of my bill adjustment to assist with the reevaluation. 

Upon contacting the hospital ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ), I was told that they could not send any forms outbound without the physician 's billing office ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) requesting it from them directly. When I informed the physician 's billing office of this, they said that they would 1 ) Open up my request for a second evaluation and 2 ) Be requesting the forms from the hospital to assist with this. As of last XX/XX/XXXX, I was informed by Supervisor XXXX XXXX. ( ID - XXXX ) that my second evaluation was denied. When asked why, he informed me that they had not requested the forms as stated, and that they came to the conclusion that the bill 's coding was correct for a second time. It should be noted that this was done without the proper documentation to make a correct analysis of my bill because they elected to not request it. 

Additionally, XXXX has told me that even though there is not way for the hospital to send them any forms without their direct request, that the physician 's billing office ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) are refusing to submit this request, despite them being necessary to properly review my bill, because their ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) policies did not allow it. Through my multiple contacts with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, particularly XXXX XXXX. ( ID # : XXXX ), I have been given large amounts of misinformation, hung up on, not been given scheduled callbacks on multiple occasions and been denied the ability to escalate to a supervisor regarding this matter. I have been putting in large amounts of effort to resolve this issue and have my bill properly evaluated since XX/XX/XXXX, but have been getting the run-around by XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and am no closer to any conclusion. As of the date of this complaint 's submission, I have yet to receive a callback from this office after multiple requests in order to resolve this issue. Lastly, I'd recommend that the phone recordings for my calls be reviewed for a complete-scope of my issues with this billing office and their refusal to work with me on this matter. 

Please be advised that the attached documents are my bill from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and the letter that was initially sent to XXXX XXXX XXXX to resolve my {$1300.00} bill. In particular, the hospital bill more thoroughly outlines my issues with the Date of Service and following weeks. It should also be noted that CMRE Collections is the agency who is holding my bill in collections. Although, my issue has not been with them, but rather XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, who sent my bill to collections. My attempts to resolve this issue have been with with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in order to have them correct the issue, and relay that to CMRE Collections. 

I can be reached any time by phone at XXXX, or by email at XXXX. Thank you for your consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation