Columbia Asia Hospital — highly inflated bill than estimates and unprofessional staffs

Address:

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, 201002

I am writing this letter to bring your attention towards the fake billing to make more money in the colombia asia hospital, ghaziabad. They have prepared several fake bills without in patient knowledge to grab more money. I don’t know, if this is a common practice of hospital to loot money or a mutual understanding between insurance company and hospital. But in this money making game, i am getting tortured and also losing my money and faith in the hospital system.
Key points:
• hospital had provided estimated expense of inr 78000/- and took my consent.
• hospital prepared final bill of 1, 41, 504/- and sent to tpa approval without my knowledge and consent.
• after my serious concern over the highly inflated bill and tpa rejection, they created another bill of 87770 and took my consent and sent to approval.
• later on, hospital created another bill “corporate bill” of 1, 32, 597 and sent to tpa. This is what i am informed by hospital that outstanding amount of 1, 23, 820 is pending at tpa.
• to grab more money, they create another bill “patient bill” of inr 9, 057.
• sum of 1, 32, 597 + 9, 057 = 1, 41, 504
• my concern, if estimated expense was 78, 000 then why final bill is highly inflated.
• why hospital staffs are playing tricks with the accountings ad fool patients?
• i am hopeless and tortured now. I will raise this to several forums and let people know the dirty money making game of hospitals.

I am explaining the events chronologically to have better understanding.
12-aug-2017
• admitted to the hospital after meeting a minor motor bike accident
• had x-ray and citi scan.
• admitted to the hospital

13-aug-2017
• orthopaedic doctor rajesh kumar verma visited to see me.
• informed me that there would be a minor surgery to fix this fracture.
• hospital had provided me estimate of inr 78000/- and took my necessary consent.
• estimate was sent to e-meditek for initial approval
• surgery was scheduled to happen at 9:00 am next morning.
14-aug-2017
• no pre-approval received from tps. So, surgery could not be done till 10:30
• i did follow with tpa, fiserv hr and hospital staffs and came to know that hospital did not send the required documents for pre-approval. (Major ignorance from hospital)
• to avoid further delay in the surgery, i paid inr 35000/- to the hospital.
15-aug-2017
• doctor had visited once to see me. I asked about discharge from hospital.
• dr. Rajesh told me that, he would discharge me tomorrow morning after dressing of the wound.
16-aug-2017
• since, dressing hardly took 5-10 minutes, so, i was expecting to leave hospital before noon 12:00 pm even in worst case.
• today, doctor didn’t even come to see me once. I tried calling him several times, but received only excuses from him.
• around 5:00 pm, another doctor visited me and did the dressing. Surprised, i did wait for whole day just for this 5 minutes activity.
• at this time, 1 extra day charge was added unnecessarily because of doctor & hospital staffs ignorance.
• during this waiting period, i was shocked to hear that hospital had sent final bill of 1, 41, 504 for approval. I was not aware of this. They didn’t take my consent on this.
• i escalated my concern to several hospital staffs, and received reply that “this is not your money, why you worrying about it”. Seriously!! This is my insurance limit, i pay premium for it. How this money doesn’t belong to me?
• also, hospital had done nothing extra than planned, then how final bill was twice than estimated. I asked this question to a hospital finance staff lakshmi. She had no answer and just left me.
• tpa had rejected this fake bill.
• now, hospital created a new bill of 87, 770 and took my consent on that.
• at 10:30 pm night, hospital informed me that, i would not leave today because tpa had put approval on hold.
• i spoke to tpa and came to know that approval was sent at 9:50 pm. I couldn’t understand why hospital had lied to me.
• after some serious argument with staffs, they allowed me to go home at 12:30 am (Mid night).

17-aug-2017
• i received an sms, that refund has been generated for inr 25, 943/-.
• hospital informed me that they have sent revised bill 1, 32, 597 bill for approval. Here, i was expected to pay inr 8, 777.
• this is quite unexpected for me. As earlier they had prepared a new of 87770 and took my consent on that. And i believe 8777 is 10% of this amount only.
• i spoke to tpa and he denied that no such approval has made.
20-aug-2017
• went for dressing and medicine, as only 4 days medicine was given me at the time of discharge.
• i was informed that, they will now refund me only 17000. This is something unethical and fraud behaviour from hospital. They have created a separate bill “patient bill” of inr 9057/-. I looked at the bill, this contains the items which were earlier part of corporate bill of 1, 41, 504.
• this is clearly a money making strategy by fooling patient.
• they also informed me that they have outstanding of 1, 23, 820 on tpa.
• till this time, i became hopeless and fed up both physically and mentally.

I am fully disappointed with the hospital, its doctor and staffs. They must learn professionalism and basic ethics.

Thanks,
Deepak kumar
Cell : [protected]