(Untitled)

[julad]

I know I have a few folk in the Australian health industry on the flist, so I'm hoping desperately that somebody can give me some advice on a stupid, ridiculous hospital billing saga

Comments

[in_the_bottle]

Try going to a community legal centre to see if they have any solicitors who is able to help in terms of identifying which authority you should contact.

Also, make an official request under the Privacy Act. The National Privacy Principle 6 states that individuals have rights to see/get a copy of their medical records.

This site may be useful in terms of trying to get records from the hospital. Again, if you can find a solicitor to write to the hospital officially, it might push them to do something.

You can also lodge a complaint against the hospital for not providing you with the requested document. This is more appropriate than the other 2 ombudsman since you're trying to get info from the hospital to prove what they told you.

Let me know if you need any more help.

[julad]

Thank you, that's great information. I didn't think of the privacy angle.

Right now I'm assuming it's more incompetence than malice that is making it difficult to get the paperwork. This hospital has fucked up just about everything you can imagine related to getting a piece of paper from A to B. Believe me, there's a whole separate complaint about their incompetence that I've been sitting on while I try to resolve the bill.

Do you know: if I get this information and prove the hospital told me there was no cost to me, does that do me any good? Are they obliged to honour that? I don't know if it's worth the time and hassle of getting the document if it won't change the eight hundred dollar bottom line.

[in_the_bottle]

This is what happens when you work in the area of FOI/Privacy law, it's the first thing that came to mind

[julad]

OMG, I so would have gone to a public hospital! If I even had eight hundred frigging dollars, I have so many things I would rather do with it! :O

From my discussions with the hospital, it sounds like somebody didn't follow procedure when checking my coverage, didn't do a proper check, and that's where it went wrong. So I guess that falls into the "mistake" category.

Thanks for the advice. I see that I shall need to focus on seeming annoying and unwilling to give up. I'm sure there's plenty of television role models out there for me. *g*

[julad]

Thanks for the offer. I already got pretty far down this path, let me tell you where I'm at

[julad]

Thanks for this. I am going to write up all the facts and figures in a neat document and then either do as you've suggested or get legal advice.

[ukcalico]

Argh and ugh, in that order. Poor you! I know nothing helpful but send outraged hugs. {{{j}}}

[julad]

Thanks! We really have to catch up and chat, it's been forever!