Billing Errors Hampering Collection at Hospital

Following the time honored practice of “blame it on the other guy,” Aspen Valley Hospital is claiming that the recent upset over its billing practices is the fault of the old administration.  Armed with a new billing contractor, Aspen Valley feels it’s up to patients to respond to notices within the specified time – even if it means, for instance, responding for the nineteenth time to a bill sent by the hospital that isn’t yours.

With everything from disgruntled former patients to the threat of a class-action lawsuit, the hospital has been having a tough time of it lately.  Kay Honigman-Singer, a Colorado attorney, told the <i>Aspen Times Weekly</i> that she is telling her clients not to pay for any bills that are incorrect and over one year old – something of which the hospital seems to have plenty of.  Honigman-Singer is arguing that the hospital is relying on strong-arm tactics to collect old bills, whether the bills are accurate or not.

In response to all of this attention, AVH claims it is reviewing its billing processes.  However, the hospital is also claiming that the hospital is and has acted properly, efficiently, and in good faith as it pursues collection of charges for services dating as far back as 2004.

Sarpa and other hospital representatives have said AVH is "current" with its bills for recent services. But because of a billing system meltdown several years ago, in which billing clerks "miscoded" some $12 million in bills that were never sent out as a result, the hospital is only now demanding payment for services that were rendered as much as three years ago.

"We’re going to make some mistakes, for sure," Sarpa admitted at Monday’s meeting. But there are fewer mistakes now, he maintained, and the hospital’s billing apparatus is "a heck of a lot more efficient than we used to be."