Hospital Billing

* Re “Hospital Computer Billing System ‘in Danger of Collapse,’ ” Nov. 27:

Director Robert Gates of the Department of Health Services should look beyond computer systems for the billing problems. On July 21 a traffic accident put me into Harbor-UCLA County Medical Center. I provided my hospital insurance coverage and personal information at the trauma unit, on transfer to the emergency room, on transfer to a bed in the hospital and before entering surgery. The medical care was excellent but obtaining a bill is difficult.

Every hospital I’ve dealt with in the last 10 years provided a detailed bill upon discharge--not at a county hospital. Two months after my accident, I called Harbor to request a bill be sent to me or to my insurance company. I got lost in a series of prerecorded messages. The first message asked me to press 1 for English and 2 for Spanish. All subsequent messages then gave me both English and Spanish instructions. Once into the maze of messages, the option of speaking to a human was never available. The last recording I listened to asked me to leave a message and provide reference numbers from my unseen bill. The message I left was never returned.

Recently, my attorney contacted hospital administration to request a listing of charges incurred. The hospital would not release that information unless I signed a lien against any future settlement received as a result of the auto accident. Meanwhile neither I nor my insurance company has yet to be billed for what I would guess is over $10,000 in charges!

ROGER D. HOFF

Redondo Beach