December 28,2016
Boyd A. Loving
Ridgewood NJ, If you receive a bill for services provided by The Valley Hospital, DO NOT PAY THE BILL without thoroughly checking its validity.
I received a $5,900 bill for services rendered at The Luckow Pavilion only to find out that an employee of The Valley’s accounting department failed to provide the correct authorization code to my health care insurance provider. It took three (3) in-person visits to The Valley’s offices in Paramus over a four (4) month period before I was able to straighten the matter out.
My attempts to quickly resolve the issue were stymied when a representative from the accounting department told me that I was “personally responsible” for contacting a supervisor at The Luckow Pavilion to gather information. Seems as though the accounting department will not initiate communication with other hospital departments by phone or e-mail. And, when a supervisor from Luckow did write to accounting, the e-mail was not opened for 30 days – it was opened only after the accounting department’s director was called by phone.
In retrospect, I’m now left wondering if all of this was a disguised attempt on the part of someone at The Valley to extract $5,900 from me instead of accepting the $4,800 agreed upon payment from my insurance company. I’m also wondering how many people just wind up paying these “bogus” bills instead of putting up with the hassle involved in challenging them.
What a way (not) to run a business.
