I have loved Children's Hospital for many years. ...

I have loved Children's Hospital for many years. They have always been wonderful to my children. They have had 2 emergency surgeries there and one scheduled surgery among many other things. I have paid them thousands of dollars over the past 10 years and have never had trouble of any kind, until now. My daughter broke her wrist skiing last December and we went to Children's Ortho for her follow up. The PA determined she didn't need a cast, removed her cast and gave us the option to choose one of two splints. I asked about the cost and pros and cons of each. I was told one (the one they sell at Walgreen's for $16) would cost about $50 and the other which she could use and play sports with would cost about $100 so we chose the one that she could play volleyball with. When I received the bill it was much higher than I anticipated. It also was not itemized. When I called they told me her splint cost over $400! Obviously, if I would have been told the correct price I would not have bought that for her to where for just three weeks. I have been trying to reconcile this for over 6 months with Children's and NO ONE will work with me. I have offered to return the splint and offered to pay the $100 I was quoted. I get the constant run-around and have been told that the doctors don't know the prices or that it has already been processed through insurance. It is unacceptable to quote one price to a customer and then charge them 4x that amount. This is what the politicians are talking about when they are asking for "transparency." Today - I give up...I paid the bill in full (before it goes to collections which is the last notification I received) and am going to try to put this behind me. But, I wanted to let others know.