Huge bill after prepaid TT???

Hi Everyone. I was really enjoying my tummy tuc****il I checked my mailbox today and found a huge bill from the hospital where I had my surgery. My surgeon works out of a small hospital, and she adds the hospital bill in with her quote, but I had to pay the hospital fee directly to the hospital the day before surgery. Of course, they did not give me any paperwork after I signed all of those documents, so I don't have anything to go back and look at to see what's up.

I paid the hospital 1000.00, which was the quote from my surgeon during my consult. Today, I got a bill that shows that I paid that 1000.00, and some kind of "adjustment of -1200.00. BUT...the bill says that I owe an additional 3,787.00!!! 

I'm assuming it's a mistake since all of this was supposed to be prearranged, and I paid everything that was due before my surgery. Surgery went as planned, except that they told me before surgery that "most people leave the outpatient surgical center by around 3:00 pm". I had trouble waking up and stayed about five hours longer. Still, the agreement I signed at the surgeon's office said that if I had to stay a full night in the hospital, it would cost 350.00, so even a few hours over should not cost almost 4000.00 bucks.

The billing office and the surgeon's office were closed when I got home and checked the mail, so I've got to wonder about this all night long.

Has this ever happened to any of you, or does anyone have any idea what might be going on with this ugly bill??

I had to pay almost 7,000 to the surgery center for my lbl/bl (in addition to what I paid my surgeon), so 4800 sounds reasonable to me. But I was aware of that amount before my surgery.

Thanks for the reply. The surgeon told me before surgery that the hospital cost would be 1000.00 (some kind of negotiated rate that she gets). I do remember signing some paper at the surgeons office that said if I had complications, I may have to pay more, but I did not have any complications other than staying in recovery a few hours longer than the nurse who checked me in say people usually stay. The only reason she told me that was because my husband had to leave for a while, and we wanted to make sure he got back to pick me up on time, so I don't know if I have to pay extra for the hours I stayed over.

I'd be shocked to have to pay that much extra since I already paid the average cost for a tummy tuck in my area. I have a followup tomorrow afternoon, so I'll post whatever I find out. Of course, I'm calling the hospital as soon as they open in the morning, too, in hopes of finding out what's up. Thanks again.

It definitely sounds like your surgeon needs to contact them about it. Keep us posted. I'm still shocked your surgery center bill was so low.

My entire extended TT done in the hospital (outpatient) was under 6000.00 for everything. That's why I was shocked to get a 6000.00 (before they subtracted the 1000.00 I paid and another 1200.00 for something). I asked several people in the office to make sure that was going to be the total cost, so I think this must be a mistake. If anything, I may owe a few hundred bucks for the extra hours in recovery. Hope so, anyway. I'll post tomorrow after I find out for sure.

i would def contact them.....they cant charge more after for things. my TT was much less. my insurance company paid for the panni...i paid the extra for the TT. I paid around 3000 for the docotrs fee, hospital charge and ansthesia

Thanks Val28. I'm sure it must be a mistake of some kind. I know the surgeon said she had a "special rate" with the hospital for her patients, so maybe I somehow to billed by mistake. Sure not a nice thing to find in the mailbox, though! Even if I owe a little more, I can't imagine it being more than a couple of hundred bucks. I looked up the hospital reviews, and can't find any complaints about them, so it's probably just a mistake. If they were charging everyone that much more than they thought they were going to have to pay, I'm SURE there would be some complaints listed somewhere online, lol.

Hello,
I am having a very hard time finding a doctor who accepts insurance. The story I get from the doctor is that they will not pay anything, so they don't accept it...may I ask did you file the paperwork or did your Doctor?
Stu

Maybe they sent a bill for what the surgeon owes the hospital for performing surgery there; the anestheologist, nurses, etc. when it should have gone to the surgeon. ?? 

Since there wasn't any kind of emergency and you were cash pay for an elective procedure, the hospital would have wanted that up front if you really owed them more than the $1,000 you pre-paid. Sounds like an error to me. 

Hmmm...not sure. It looks like overinflated pricing that they charge the insurance company before they get the actual contracted amount. It says...

Cardiology 228.00
Pharmacy 1,718.00
Supplies 2,214.00
Surgical Services 1,875.00

Total of 6,035.00
Adjustments -1,248.00
Patient Payments -1000.00
Please Pay 3,787.00

It's addressed to me and says that the balance shown is my responsiblity, BUT it is almost the identical amount of the total consult bill, so you may be on to something. I'll ask about that if they can't figure it out when I call in the morning. I'm just trying to decide if I need to call the surgeon or the hospital first. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll let you know what happens.