<p>We got a letter from a lawyer saying they are representing a hospital in an appeal against Medicare. It relates to par t of some treatment my husband had almost 3 YEARS ago. Apparently Medicare paid it, then after some sort of audit they denied it. It’s the first we’ve heard of any of this. The letter says we are not part of it and it is for our information only.</p>
<p>Obviously a concern as it is several thousand dollars if they then expect us to pay for it. It was right when his cancer treatments were starting. We were sent to a different hospital for some tests as the oncologist wanted them asap and the cancer hospital couldn’t do it. An ekg indicated he was having a heart attack and he was rushed to the er where he spent the day hooked up to machines before being admitted. Then had an angiogram ( they would not do the other surgical procedure for the cancer tests without it). In the end everything was clear but they believe he had had a silent heart attack some time previously. Went on to do the required procedure for the cancer tests. </p>
<p>It’s all a bit of the blur really - it was a really traumatic 2 weeks with one thing after another going wrong before the cancer treatment started. Really worried we are going to be hit with a huge Bill for procedures we had no choice over and being so long ago we don’t remember much. Anyone have any experience like this?</p>
<p>Can’t believe this is the first we are hearing about this - three years!!</p>
<p>Swimcatsmom- sorry you have to deal with this. Did the letter provide a contact number so that you could better understand this? It sounds like the hospital is in a dispute with Medicare, attempting to get compensation for services provided and reverse the denial. They may have a group of patients with similar situations and be addressing them all at once. This is not my expertise, but I wonder if you have kept the Medicare statements for this time frame. It seems to me that Medicare usually lists patient responsibility by claim. There is a broader context for some issues between many hospitals and Medicare; perhaps the lawyer’s office could put your mind at ease. I have no trouble believing that the entire experience is hazy. How much can one family navigate simultaneously?
Keep us posted and best with this. </p>
<p>As far as I recall, we had no responsibility on the bills we received. We have the plan F supplemental and paid 've very little out of pocket through his whole treatment. We were travelling hundreds of miles every other week to Houston for several months (a low survival rate cancer) and lived down there for 6 weeks during part of the trestment. We gave up trying to understand the Medicare statements after a while - they are incredibly confusing (& we are both accountants and very good with numbers!). I guess we need to sort through and find the statements. From the letter, it sounds like it was paid and subsequently the payment was rescinded after the audit. I am 99.99% sure we were never told about this.</p>
<p>Quite terrifying really. The cancer medical bills were huge and this makes you wonder if they could come back to bite us. There should be some sort of statute of limitations - this was 2011& everything was paid for as far as we knew (this was not the cancer hospital - I think MDA knows the Medicare rules pretty well)</p>
<p>Actually, an interesting point about maybe there being a group of patients. Part of the letter was blacked out with just one line showing with my husband’s name and a $ amount. I wonder if the rest was other patients. </p>
<p>There is a statute of limitations. (It varies by state, so I can’t tell you what it would be for your state - but it should be pretty easy to find out with a simple Google search). So if you don’t have a bill from the hospital,I don’t think you have anything to worry about. </p>
<p>I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Both medicare and the irs go back years and re audit and renegotiates payments. All the time. It sounds like the hospital is appealing the audit. That happens way more than people realize. There is even a name for it in our billing software - recoupment. It’s when medicare pays, then takes it back. Sometimes they even do the reverse, deny, then in an audit decide to pay. </p>