#@!%$

Can things get any worse? Wait, don't answer that question.

At this moment I am having the worst possible morning. Click on back and have a look at THIS post, and read all about the ways that Sutter Davis is screwing us royally in relation to the HSG we had. Then click on THIS post and read about yet another way that Sutter Davis, in conjunction with Radiological Associates of Sacramento, is screwing us even more.

To summarize and bring you up to date – Sutter quoted us $650 for our HSG and offered us a 40% discount for paying up front; a second $1400 bill arrived from Sutter a week or so later, and a $1600 bill arrived from RAS shortly after that. So our $400 discounted procedure was now costing us well over $3000. I argued with RAS, who said the cash price was $800 and offered to let us pay that.

I called Sutter and disputed and they logged in a complaint. Yesterday I got a letter saying the complaint was resolved, and I should call their billing office (which has ridiculously short business hours). I called this morning and was told that we would have to pay, that the quote they gave us was just an estimate (which was, whoops! WAY OFF) and that we had only paid for the X-rays, not the “injection” and “monitoring”, which cost $1400. That brings the grand total of our HSG to around $2600. I called back and logged another complaint, but I’m not expecting anything different.

I’m trying to formulate a plan for what to do next. My OBGYN (who I’m not fond of right now) thought the cost was ridiculous, so I will probably ask her for a letter. I’m requesting a written decision from the billing office, and I will then write them a letter about shady business practices, taking advantage of people, and lying. Not to mention that the bill they sent me doesn’t say a word about injection and monitoring.

How can this keep happening? We’re trying to do everything right. I just want to cry.

No wonder the health care system in our country is going to hell.


(P.S. I just wanted to add that this is all a dispute with the hospital, and insurance is not involved. It's my hospital, who I would have to trust my health, my life, and the life of my family, that is treating us this way. How awful is that?)