Emily Pacelli

Review of Gulf Coast Medical Center, Pan...

My experience is from the outpatient services port...

My experience is from the outpatient services portion of the hospital; and it is mainly with billing. Who ever does the billing basically lied to me. I was told to begin with (after setting up my appointment) that I would get a call the day before my heart tests were scheduled to do pre reg and set up payment information. I was told that when this call took place, I would be able to set up payments if I needed to. The day before my testing came and no call, so I had to call them and track down whoever had my paperwork for pre-reg. Whatever, it s not the end of the world... I just wanted to get it done. The woman I spoke with went over the pricing with me. She told me that if I paid in full that day, I would receive a 20% or 25% discount (it was one of the two). Given that my total was almost $700.. that was a significant amount of money to have discounted. So I bit the bullet and I put the rest of the cost on my credit card so I could receive the discount. I notated the original price and the discounted price, thanked the woman and prepared for my testing. All went well on the day of my testing, the nurse who performed my heart ultrasound was amazing, people were very caring and took their job seriously. The issue came when I received a bill in the mail... the bill amount was the difference between the original cost and the discount I received. I was infuriated. I put myself out to pay what I could and put the rest of the cost on my credit card when I didn t need to and ultimately, I was lied to about a discount. This is just bad practice, don t be dishonest with people who are struggling as it is to pay for medical procedures. I refused to pay it and now it has gone to collections, don t come here for outpatient services or testing if you aren t ready to pay everything they tell you up front and then more later. Don t accept any discounts, there is no point because you will just owe them when you receive a bill at a later date for the difference. I now have the balance sitting on my credit and even if I were willing to pay it, I don t have the money now (I could have just set up payments and it wouldn t have screwed me). Just a terrible experience and I won t be back for any type of service like this.