Fighting a Hospital Bill for 2.5yr

My wife had a hospital visit in October 2021 that resulted in a bill of $28,892.50 with $5,499.30 of patient responsibility. After some investigation, it was clear this was incorrectly charged to the patient when the majority of that charge should have also been insurance responsibility. They initially said it was because they billed it out-of-network because the hospital was out-of-network, however since we came in through the ER it should be handled in-network.

We have been fighting it ever since, with constant communication with Cigna the insurance provider and Banner Health the medical institution. In March of 2023, the bill for patient responsibility INCREASED to $8,899.74. Banner Health has been unable to place the account on-hold properly and keep threatening to send to collections, so we have paid monthly payments at various times to keep the account active. I believe we have paid $3,246.62 according to their statement although I have lost track of if that's the proper amount. We still owe just over $7,000.

We had auto payments setup for $370.82 while we continued to wait for the resolution and on 9/25 we received a statement showing our auto-payments had been stopped and we only had a choice of 6 larger payments or a single payment.

We continued to work through the resolution with assistance from a health advocate claims specialist, and Banner told him the account was placed out-of-patient responsibility during investigation. Despite this, while waiting on communication from both parties on 12/8/2023 we received a letter from debt collections for the remaining balance of $7,045.64.

We kept fighting and have held off collections but today Cigna came back and said, sorry we aren’t going to correct it to in-network because the original submission said out of network.

What the heck do I do now? I refuse to pay for a logistical error. I’d rather pay lawyers. Can I sue or threaten litigation? Who do I contact for this, is it even worth it? How do I get the bill out of collections while this crap is handled?

I called the hospital and they basically said it's not their problem now that it's in collections.

I have averaged probably 20 hours a month trying to deal with this for over 2 years. Insurance points to hospital, hospital points to insurance. Nothing ever makes progress…heck it's actually gotten WORSE since the start. We have documentation for all communication since February of 2022 when the first bill was received and a stack of bills to prove everything.

TLDR;

$5,499.30 patient responsibility bill, charged incorrectly Tried fighting it, a year later bill was INCREASED to $8,899.74. Have paid $3,246.62 in payments over the course of 2 years to try and keep it out of collections while fighting it. Hospital STOPPED my payments and would only let me pay larger sum payments. Had my health advocate speak with the hospital, and they placed my account out-of-patient responsibility. Received letter from collections saying I owe the $7,045.64 Put collections on hold while pending outcome Cigna finally says they won’t change to in network because it was incorrectly filed originally What do I do now? How can I fix this? I refuse to pay for a logistical error. submitted by /u/Creatre
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