The Case of the Two Grace Elliotts: A Medical Billing Mystery

[sl8]

https://khn.org/news/article/mistaken-identity-two-grace-elliotts-medical-billing-mystery/

The Case of the Two Grace Elliotts: A Medical Billing Mystery

By Mark Kreidler
DECEMBER 21, 2022

Earlier this year, Grace Elizabeth Elliott got a mysterious hospital bill for medical care she had never received.

This story also ran on NPR. It can be republished for free.

She soon discovered how far a clerical error can reach — even across a continent — and how frustrating it can be to fix.

During a college break in 2013, Elliott, then 22, began to feel faint and feverish while visiting her parents in Venice, Florida, about an hour south of Tampa. Her mother, a nurse, drove her to a facility that locals knew simply as Venice Hospital.

In the emergency department, Elliott was diagnosed with a kidney infection and held overnight before being discharged with a prescription for antibiotics, a common treatment for the illness.

[...]

[Bev54]

1. Wow not sure of the laws in US but in Canada, if you contact the collection agency

and tell them you are disputing the bill and to send it back to the original owner of the debt they have to do that. Another problem we would not have is that everyone in our country has a medical number for their province which their hospital and medical care would use that number to differentiate each user.