Friday, February 6, 2009

$4,000?!?!?!?!

This morning when I got into work I received a call on my cell phone from a 417 area code. I was intrigued, so I decided to stop what I was doing and take the call from my patient account rep at Citizens Memorial Hospital in Bolivar, MO, whom I spoke with the day before regarding my patient account balance (which will be paid off once I receive my severance check next week). The following is a paraphrase of our conversation:

Me: Hello, this is Tim.

CMH: Hello, this is Renee calling from Patient Accounting at Citizens Memorial. I was calling to let you know that we did get your account balance updated in our system, and we do show a remaining balance of $4,....

Me: Excuse me?! Are ya SURE about that?!

CMH: This is regarding 3 doctors' visits and a hospital visit from 2006.

Me: Right, and I've been making payments on that SINCE 2006! We spoke yesterday and you told me my account balance was under $900. My most recent billing statement does not reflect any $4,000 amount!

CMH: I'd be happy to send you a copy of the bill for those services to 7575 W....

Me: That is my correct address but that is not my correct balance! You must have something crossed in your system. My original bill was over $4,000 for an ER visit in August 2006 but I've been paying on that since 2006!

CMH: Wait a second...who is this?

Me: This is Tim Sowards. We spoke yesterday regarding my account balance.

CMH: Ohhhh yeahhh....hang on a second.

CMH: Ok, I think I put your contact info into the account for another Tim who had these services. I'm showing your balance as $818.66.

Me: Ok...that sounds more correct! I'm sorry if I came across as rude, but you really scared me!

And that, my friends, was today's heart attack. I never thought I could envoke such emotion! Other than that, God is good, and life is slowly getting better.

3 comments:

deliveredjude said...

Holy cow!!! I would have been fuh-reaked out! I'm glad that it all worked out. You're almost there!

Hey, I'm really sorry that I've missed your past couple of calls. I hope that we can connect very soon. I miss your company fo' sheezy, Teezy.

Peace homie.

Cary said...

i would have crapped my pants.
no joke.

you handled in a much more manly fashion. Kudos, Tim!

Joel said...

no expletives or anything? i bet it was tough not to. i can't say what i would've done in that situation. makes for a good story though. although i would be extremely happy if my school loan payment people called saying i owe $4000.