Working at an Emergency Room Corporate Office, takes on a lot of pressure, but it always very rewarding. I am a Patient Advocate there; I’m in charge of making sure the accounts have processed properly through their insurance, but most importantly speaking with the patients about their accounts with us. They call in to either pay their bill, complain about how high the bill is and the fact that they want a discount, or plain out tell me they are not paying it. The rewarding part would be, being able to help the patient with what ever problem or situation they may have.
Well one day I got a call from a patient and she claimed that she was charged for services that she did not receive; the worst. She also stated that the prices for the particular services she received were a bit excessive. I informed the patient that we priced and billed our patients according to ACEP guidelines (American College of Emergency Physicians, 2014), and so does every other emergency room. She said, she would definitely check that out. But there was no way for me to tell with the documents I had in front of me on my screen, because they stated that she had in fact received those services. So I informed the patient that I would get to the bottom of the situation and return her phone call. She said she would greatly appreciate that and would be checking the ACEP Guidelines in the meantime.
I gave the facility a call about the situation at hand to see if they could pull up the acct and possibly refresh their memory of this patients visit. The receptionist said according to the file the nurse that was on duty the night in question, was on duty this day as well. She spoke with the nurse regarding this particular account, the nurse had no recollection of whether this patient had received the service or not. So at that point I had no choice but to call the patient back and inform the patient that no one