I am not sure how Novant Health can treat its patients the way I have been treated. I had back surgery by Dr. Back on March 31,2022 and stayed in the hospital after the surgery until April 3rd, 2022. My insurance changed on March 31st from BPA to Vitori on April 1st.
First of all, Dr. Back did not seek approval for my surgery prior to March 31st. I had to tell his office to get the approval some months after my surgery when Novant Health tried to bill me $174,000 for the surgery and hospital stay. BPA refused to pay the $174,000 because Novant Health tried to charge BPA for the entire stay from March 31st to April 3rd. I had to call Novant Health billing to tell them they needed to send the invoice to BPA for the March 31st expenses and then Vitoria for the April 1 to April 3 expenses. So instead they sent the entire bill to Vitori who of course refused to pay. After calling Novant Health several times giving them the phone numbers and the exact details they needed to appropriately bill each insurance company, I then received a call from a billing person who said they would investigate into it to make sure everything was being completed properly. I get a letter back saying that they were doing everything correctly and I owed the full $174,000. Finally, over the past two weeks I get notification from both insurance companies advising me what they were covering and that I would owe $15,000. Then on Friday, July 21st, 2023 I get an email from Novant Health saying that I owed $15,000 and I needed to make payments or this would be sent to a collection agency.
What kind of company does this to a person? What kind of health care company would do this? I will be calling them tomorrow and letting them know what kind of health care company they are. I will never go to Novant Health again and I am going to tell as many people as possible what kind of scum they are.
It's just about the treatment I received by the billing department of Novant Health. I am sorry, but I do not wish to share the receipt of my medical expense.
In October 2020 I was referred to Novant Health Charlotte & Rectal Surgery (1450 Matthews Township Pkwy Ste 355. Matthews, NC. *******. Ph: *******259), and I was seen by Dr Anna B Johnson. I was referred due to abdominal pain. Dr Johnson performed a complete exam and shared that she didn't find anything, there is no bleeding or any other concern and asked me to follow up with my primary physician and said she will discharge me as no further treatment needed by her. About 10 to 15 minutes later she came back and said, she wants to perform a colonoscopy. I asked why this procedure is needed as she just explained few minutes back that no further treatment / procedure is needed. I asked few more follow up questions but She didn't answer and said she recommends colonoscopy. That was concerning as she contradicted herself and on top of that, she failed to give me any explanation
My 2nd question was, would my insurance cover the cost of the procedure and her response was that she will bill the insurance in a way that it will be covered.
About 3 weeks after the procedure, I started to receive bills from several different departments totaling about $6000 and later some of the bills even went to collections.
I've been trying to fight this with Novant for past 6 months and trying to ask why the procedure was recommended when initially I was told by the same doctor that no further treatment /procedure is needed. 2nd, I was lied to again when I was told the doctor will code the bill so nothing will come out of my pocket.
Later when filed a dispute, I was told by Novant that doctors don't control the billing. I understand that, but doctor do control not to order unnecessary procure just to make money. Patients trust the doctors for right advice, but when that advice turns into money making machine and greed takes over, then there are some serious ethical concerns.
I filed a complaint with Novant Risk department in December 2020. I make numerous attempts to speak to someone. Each time I called I was told that my case will be reviewed by the management and they will make a decision. It took them over 6 months to review my file. Finally, on 06/8/2021 I received a letter stating that my claim been denied and the procedure performed was appropriate.
This is absurd. Doctor Johnson clearly said that no further procedure or treatment needed. Apparently, she had instructions from her management to order procedure regardless its needed or not, Or she did it on her own. In either case, patients like me have to suffer.
I wanted to post this review so other patients can learn a lesson. This may prevent unethical and immoral practices by some greedy doctors or medical practices.