Apollo Hospital — billing settlement process in apollo children hospital

Address:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu

I had my son ACH1.[protected], AC01.[protected] undergo surgery in Apollo Chennai. I am thankful to Dr. & his team for the successful surgery, the doctors and nurses who helped him recover post-operative. But I am hugely disappointed and probably would avoid Apollo any further based on the experiences with billing and admin team.

I was initially told the surgery costs would be Rs. 250000/- with 4-5 day stay. We were good to be discharged on Day 4. So naturally u expect the bill to be in the range. Just because i had an authorization for green channel, it was assumed by billing person that i dont have a limit and inflated my bill to Rs. 299000/-. The initial answer for difference was hospital costs (professional fees was ok and i am more than happy to pay surgeon) and we have to await insurance clearance while all along i was telling the person, that insurance limit is only 2 lakhs (which also i need to reconcile with salary for adjustment) and rest has to borne by me. i also told i have one apollo membership gold which got upgraded to platinum during the process - which is of no use and doesnt provide even courtesy benefits. First 2 hours, based on mail triggers that i also get, need to go each time to desk to say what further to be done.. i was told once insurance clears, he will talk to one Mr. Doss to see what could be done. After 2 more hours, was told to wait further since other person Doss isnt reachable.. when i kept pestering was spoken to Doss who had said not more than 6000 coudl be reduced or something..

I felt humiliated that i had to undergo what i went thru for no fault of me where i clearly told what green channel means, what is the limit while there was no clear break up of details on how it moved from original estimate of Rs. 2.5 lakhs to Rs. 2.99 lakhs. I shoudlnt have been held hostage with kid for hours where we wanted to discharge early not to miss auspicious time, shoudl have been told that my cost has increased even before discharge and ideally break up of bill shoudl be given - not high level generic items but exact line details.

Appreciate my concern addressed where due review of the billing process, person and bill done at the earliest and reverted to me.