Complaint Review: Brotman Medical Center - culver city California

Brotman has committed a number of instances of civil, consumer, medical and business fraud. I was a patient at this hospital for 48 hours on 9-15-2009, delivered by ambulance and treated for chest pain. They claimed to accept my insurance, which was falsethey were not an Anthem Blue Cross member. The provided garden-variety treatment, which included intravenous drugs, EKG, echocardiogram and angioplasty, discharging me precisely at the hour at which my insurance would no longer cover my visit on the basis of "emergency out of network care."

My 48-hour stay and routine cardiac treatment somehow produced a bill of $84,810.35. Insurance would only pay $27,437.03. They attempted to "balance bill" me for the remainder until I was advised by an attorney of the non-legality of this practice.

Once they were aware I had spoken to an attorney, my liability quickly dropped to $3901.49, the amount of my annual maximum out-of-pocket limit of my insurance policy. Not having expected to max out my insurance in two days, I arranged with their billing representative "Mika" to make monthly payments of $400 until the full amount was reached.

I thought that would be the end of it. They would send invoices, and I paid them. The only problem: the phone calls and aggressive collection activity of an account not nearly overdue by their own measure. I would get phone calls asking me if I'd made my payment, well before the indicated due date on the statement. Each time I would point this out, and they would agree.

As the months went on,I began to make notes. On Tuesday, August 3 2010, I received a call from "Stacy" asking where my payment was. I pointed out it had been mailed that day, and wasn't due until the 5th according to their statement.

On August 5, they called again.

On August 6th, they sent me a follow-up letter again requesting the money.

On August 11, they sent a letter of demand asking for the entire balance. My check had been cashed days ago. I called the billing office and spoke to "Derek." "Don't worry about it," he told me. "You HAVE been making regular payments. The autodialer calls everyone." I asked him to make sure I got off the autodialer's calling list and he assured me he'd take care of it.

I thought that was the end of it. However, when my September statement arrived (dated 9/21, arrived 9/25. due 10/5) I paid it as usual only to discover they'd sent the account to a collection agency. Now I face the ruination of my credit, as well as possible damage to my employer and vendor relationships.

Bottom line: these people can't be trusted. It appears as though they simply don't expect people to actually pay them, and go about collection activity with a vengeance, with wanton disregard for civility, applicable law and common sense. I have dozens of credit-based relationships with businesses, people, corporations and other health-care providers. This is the only one with an ongoing problem. I have a full set of canceled checks indicating my payment history. I am amazed they can do business this way.