Jennifer Craig

Review of Mercy Iowa City

The ONLY reason this is a 2 star and not a negativ...

The ONLY reason this is a 2 star and not a negative number is because the care received at Mercy is fantastic. The doctors are amazing, and Mercy is in fact my go to for medical. So , NOT a review of doctors and care - but rather of their billing department and lack of ease in trying to pay and get a receipt to submit to insurance or HSA.

I've tried calling 4 times today to just get this number which they call an ID number which is needed to sign up for their online pay. I tell who ever I am speaking with I want to pay online to get the receipt in order to submit to HSA. They try very hard to get me to pay over the phone - to the point of one of the women was so insistent I ended up hanging up on her. On the last call, I was passed to 4 different departments before I got to someone who could help. She's walking me through how to pay online - and I'm taken to a screen which just asks for payment information. She told me that they are working on their system, so for now, they try their best to match up the amount with the patients name - so, if you're feeling generous, you could go pay someone else's bill if you'd like. But back to the issue of the receipt - this does not provide ANY form of receipt. Just that I paid a certain dollar amount. So I ask what my other options are - she says that she could email me a receipt of I pay over the phone (again, not sure why they are so keen on the over the phone payments). I then ask how the itemized receipt would get to me - she then back tracks and says either through the mail or by fax. I then ask why she can't email - when she said she could before. She tells me because it's not secure. So my only other option is to go in person and pay. Only issue is I have a day job. They're a 24/7 operation that has a billing department that's there from 8-4 M-F. No Saturday options.

I know this may seem petty - but I need a receipt. I have an HSA account to help pay medical bills. I have to provide proof that it was indeed medical. Sadly, just paying a hopsital doesn't shout that to the insurance company - therefore I need this little piece of paper that seems impossible to get. If the bill was 20-50 bucks, sure, what ever. But for a hefty 1000-1500 hospital bill if I am unable to provide proof it was indeed medically necessary, I will be required to pay out of pocket - which I'm not wanting to do.

You'd think being in the medical industry and dealing with insurance and HSA and HRAs, they'd know this. But would rather make it quite difficult to obtain the needed information to submit claims