US coronavirus survivor get P20.1-million medical bill | via nytimes COVID19
NEW YORK — Janet Mendez started receiving bills soon after returning in April to her mother’s home from Mount Sinai Morningside hospital, where she nearly died of COVID-19. First, there was one for $31,165 . Unable to work and finding it difficult to walk, Mendez decided to put the bill out of her mind and focus on her recovery.
A spokesman for the hospital told The New York Times that Mendez erroneously received a bill that should have gone directly to her insurance company or the government. Coronavirus patients, through a series of federal aid packages, are supposed to be largely exempt from paying for the bulk of their care.
Mendez said the bill should have at least been itemized, listing each drug she was being charged for — and the price. She was, after all, unconscious for much of her hospitalization. “To be clear, neither this patient nor any Mount Sinai patient should receive a bill or be expected to directly pay for their COVID-19 care,” a spokesman for Mount Sinai Health System, Jason Kaplan, wrote in an email, describing it as an isolated error.
The money comes with some conditions that are intended to protect patients from medical debt. For instance, health care providers are not permitted to seek extra payment from patients with health insurance who received care at an out-of-network hospital. Nor can they “balance-bill” — that is, bill the patient for the difference between what the insurer will pay and the hospital’s charges.
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