Palm Drive Hospital / Hand and Physical Therapy Billling

Caveat emptor!!

I recently went to Hand and Physical Therapy on Gravenstien Hwy which is part of Palm Drive Hospital.
I decided to go there for my prescribed Therapy as they accepted my Blue Cross Insurance.

The other Physio Therapy office I contacted did not accept Blue Cross. They charged $95 per hour and if I submitted my own claim to Blue Cross they thought I would get reimbursed for $30 of the $95.

I did not want to pay $65 per hour for the prescribed 8 appointments so I chose Palm Drive Hospital.

I opened my bill in May from Palm Drive for the 2 appointments I had received at Hand and Physical Therapy in April. Each appointment is about 1 hour in length. They had billed Blue Cross for $1399.00 of which I am responsible for $382!!

For 2, one hour appointments for physical therapy $1399! I thought it must be an error but it is not! That's what they charge!

If it isn't fraud then it ought to be and it is an absolute outrage.

I have filed a complaint with Blue Cross and contacted Palm Drive billing, the acting CEO of Palm Drive and the therapy office itself.

I am not letting this go.
If you or someone you know has been over billed for service at Hand and Physical Therapy I would very much like to here from you.

We can not allow this kind of over billing to continue. Especially from a local hospital that so many of us have fought to save, myself included.

I want to bring attention to this so that others will be saved from the shock I've received. I will be contacting the local press the operating Officers and the board members of Palm Drive soon and would like to have others on board with me to strike back at this outrage.

Please contact Beverly [email protected]

Thank You for your time!

I had a very similar experience a number of years ago. Not only was I billed the sort of outrageous rates you describe but they then doubled it in error. I brought the statement in and it was quickly acknowledged to be a double billing error. They said they would correct it and send me the corrected bill. I had already decided to take my rehabilitation into my own hands so as to avoid being sucked dry. Amazingly, they never rebilled me for any of it. I'm the sort of person who let's one know when they've made a billing or charge error in my favor but in this instance I felt I'd already been so taken advantage of that I never said a thing. And it apparently went away.

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by bewell:

Caveat emptor!!

I recently went to Hand and Physical Therapy on Gravenstien Hwy which is part of Palm Drive Hospital.
I decided to go there for my prescribed Therapy as they accepted my Blue Cross Insurance.

The other Physio Therapy office I contacted did not accept Blue Cross. They charged $95 per hour and if I submitted my own claim to Blue Cross they thought I would get reimbursed for $30 of the $95.

I did not want to pay $65 per hour for the prescribed 8 appointments so I chose Palm Drive Hospital.

I opened my bill in May from Palm Drive for the 2 appointments I had received at Hand and Physical Therapy in April. Each appointment is about 1 hour in length. They had billed Blue Cross for $1399.00 of which I am responsible for $382!!

For 2, one hour appointments for physical therapy $1399! I thought it must be an error but it is not! That's what they charge!

If it isn't fraud then it ought to be and it is an absolute outrage.

I have filed a complaint with Blue Cross and contacted Palm Drive billing, the acting CEO of Palm Drive and the therapy office itself.

I am not letting this go.
If you or someone you know has been over billed for service at Hand and Physical Therapy I would very much like to here from you.

We can not allow this kind of over billing to continue. Especially from a local hospital that so many of us have fought to save, myself included.

I want to bring attention to this so that others will be saved from the shock I've received. I will be contacting the local press the operating Officers and the board members of Palm Drive soon and would like to have others on board with me to strike back at this outrage.

Please contact Beverly [email protected]

Thank You for your time!

---

This seems too important a subject to let go without hearing the whole story.

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by bewell:

Caveat emptor!!

I opened my bill in May from Palm Drive for the 2 appointments I had received at Hand and Physical Therapy in April. Each appointment is about 1 hour in length. They had billed Blue Cross for $1399.00 of which I am responsible for $382!!

For 2, one hour appointments for physical therapy $1399! I thought it must be an error but it is not! That's what they charge!
. . .

---

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by Karl Frederick:

This seems too important a subject to let go without hearing the whole story.

---

This doesn't surprise me from my own experiences with the medical business. I recently read an article in from one of the news services or bigger publications like the NY Times or Washington Post that explained some of it. They claimed that the negotiated rates between hospitals or organizations like Sutter, and the insurance companies, are far higher than you can get as a walk-in. I don't recall exact numbers or the exact treatment, but I'm sure I'm in the ballpark here: they found that some kind of imaging, CAT scans or the like, was being billed at several thousand, with a several-hundred dollar "discount" from that to the insurance company and an associated co-pay for the insured of a few hundred dollars. However, when they called and asked the price for the same scan if they were to pay directly without involvement of insurance, it was something like a couple of hundred.

This kind of thing makes a mockery of the argument that "government should stay out of health care because it distorts the market". To get government completely out, we'd have to give up on the obligation of health care organizations to treat those who can't pay. Only then will Adam Smith's dead hand come in and fix it all for us.

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...WIRE/205281056

West County Hand and Physical Therapy, part of Palm Drive Hospital, bills as a hospital based outpatient therapy clinic. Our charges are based on procedures and not on hourly rates. These charges are comparable and in line with all area hospitals. The amount that we are reimbursed varies greatly depending on payors and is a fraction of the billed charges.

We are open and transparent with our prices and billing, and invite any questions or other inquiries that our patients might have.

Please feel free to contact me for further clarification.
Andrew Russell
Director of Rehabilitation Services
Palm Drive Hospital
707-829-4941

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by bewell:

Caveat emptor!!

I recently went to Hand and Physical Therapy on Gravenstien Hwy which is part of Palm Drive Hospital.
I decided to go there for my prescribed Therapy as they accepted my Blue Cross Insurance.

The other Physio Therapy office I contacted did not accept Blue Cross. They charged $95 per hour and if I submitted my own claim to Blue Cross they thought I would get reimbursed for $30 of the $95.

I did not want to pay $65 per hour for the prescribed 8 appointments so I chose Palm Drive Hospital.

I opened my bill in May from Palm Drive for the 2 appointments I had received at Hand and Physical Therapy in April. Each appointment is about 1 hour in length. They had billed Blue Cross for $1399.00 of which I am responsible for $382!!

For 2, one hour appointments for physical therapy $1399! I thought it must be an error but it is not! That's what they charge!

If it isn't fraud then it ought to be and it is an absolute outrage.

I have filed a complaint with Blue Cross and contacted Palm Drive billing, the acting CEO of Palm Drive and the therapy office itself.

I am not letting this go.
If you or someone you know has been over billed for service at Hand and Physical Therapy I would very much like to here from you.

We can not allow this kind of over billing to continue. Especially from a local hospital that so many of us have fought to save, myself included.

I want to bring attention to this so that others will be saved from the shock I've received. I will be contacting the local press the operating Officers and the board members of Palm Drive soon and would like to have others on board with me to strike back at this outrage.

Please contact Beverly [email protected]

Thank You for your time!

---

i guess the patient's story is true in every detail. so they're on the hook for $382. thats not healthcare its highway robbery. i bet the person providing the care is paid by the hour. your transperancy reveals the insanity of our healthcare system.

Quote:

---

Posted in reply to the post by aruss:

West County Hand and Physical Therapy, part of Palm Drive Hospital, bills as a hospital based outpatient therapy clinic. Our charges are based on procedures and not on hourly rates. These charges are comparable and in line with all area hospitals. The amount that we are reimbursed varies greatly depending on payors and is a fraction of the billed charges.

We are open and transparent with our prices and billing, and invite any questions or other inquiries that our patients might have.

Please feel free to contact me for further clarification.
Andrew Russell
Director of Rehabilitation Services
Palm Drive Hospital
707-829-4941

---

So after hearing from the Hand and Physical Therapy office, Palm Drive Hospital and Blue Cross not much happened.

Perhaps with the exception that Hand and Physical Therapy called to tell me that they are posting their fees in the waiting area for patients to see.

I was then billed 211.40 for 3 appointments in May of 2011.

So the grand total I spent for 5 Physio Therapy appointments is 593.40!

And Blue Cross paid 1349+1017 =$2366

Total what I paid 593.40 + Blue Cross $2366 = $2959.40
for 5 Physio Therapy Appointments!

And it's legal!

I have voted to keep Palm Drive with my property tax dollars.
That's over. There is no justification for this. It is criminal or should be criminal.

Thanks for the support.

I seriously doubt that BLUE CROSS paid anywhere near that much, if anything, to Palm Drive.

Did you ask how much the appointments would cost if you were uninsured?

I'd bet the "cash" price would be much closer to what you have paid already.