In 2013, Grace E. Elliott spent an evening in a hospital in Florida for a kidney an infection that was handled with antibiotics. Eight years later, she obtained a big invoice from the well being system that purchased the hospital. This invoice was for an unrelated surgical process she did not want and by no means obtained. It was a case of mistaken id, she knew, however proving that wasn’t straightforward.
Shelby Knowles for KHN
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Shelby Knowles for KHN
In 2013, Grace E. Elliott spent an evening in a hospital in Florida for a kidney an infection that was handled with antibiotics. Eight years later, she obtained a big invoice from the well being system that purchased the hospital. This invoice was for an unrelated surgical process she did not want and by no means obtained. It was a case of mistaken id, she knew, however proving that wasn’t straightforward.
Shelby Knowles for KHN
Earlier this yr, Grace Elizabeth Elliott obtained a mysterious hospital invoice for medical care she had by no means obtained.
She quickly found how far a clerical error can attain — even throughout a continent — and the way irritating it may be to repair.
During a school break in 2013, Elliott, then 22, started to really feel faint and feverish whereas visiting her mother and father in Venice, Fla., which is about an hour south of Tampa. Her mom, a nurse, drove her to a facility that locals knew merely as Venice Hospital.
In the emergency division, Elliott was identified with a kidney an infection and held in a single day earlier than being discharged with a prescription for antibiotics, a typical therapy for the sickness.
“My hospital invoice was about $100, which I keep in mind as a result of that was some huge cash for me as an undergrad,” mentioned Elliott, now 31.
She recovered and finally moved to California to show preschool. Venice Regional Medical Center was purchased by Community Health Systems, primarily based in Franklin, Tenn., in 2014 and finally renamed ShorePoint Health Venice.
The kidney an infection and in a single day keep within the E.R. would have been little greater than a reminiscence for Elliott.
Then one other invoice got here.
The Patients: Grace E. Elliott, 31, a preschool trainer residing along with her husband in San Francisco, and Grace A. Elliott, 81, a retiree in Venice, Fla.
Medical Services: For Grace E., an emergency division go to and in a single day keep, plus antibiotics to deal with a kidney an infection in 2013. For Grace A., a shoulder alternative and rehabilitation companies in 2021.
Service Provider: Venice Regional Medical Center, later renamed ShorePoint Health Venice.
Total Bill: $1,170, the affected person’s duty for shoulder alternative companies, after changes and funds of $13,210.21 by a well being plan with no connection to Grace E. Elliott. The preliminary expenses had been $123,854.14.
What Gives: This is a case of mistaken id, a billing thriller that began at a hospital registration desk and did not finish till months after the file had been handed over to a collections company.
Early this yr, Grace E. Elliott’s mom opened a invoice from ShorePoint Health Venice that was addressed to her daughter and sought greater than $1,000 for current hospital companies, Elliott mentioned. She “instantly knew one thing was fallacious.”
Months of sleuthing finally revealed that the invoice was meant for Grace Ann Elliott, a a lot older girl who underwent a shoulder alternative process and rehabilitation companies on the Venice hospital final yr.
Experts mentioned that accessing the fallacious affected person’s file due to a reputation mix-up is a typical error — however one for which safeguards, like checking a affected person’s photograph identification, often exist.
The hospital had handled no less than two Grace Elliotts. When Grace A. Elliott confirmed up for her shoulder alternative, a hospital worker had pulled up Grace E. Elliott’s account by mistake.
“This is the sort of factor that may undoubtedly occur,” mentioned Shannon Hartsfield, a Florida lawyer who focuses on well being care privateness violations. (Hartsfield doesn’t signify anybody concerned on this case.) “All sorts of human errors occur. A employee can pull up the names, click on the fallacious button, after which not examine [the current patient’s] date of delivery to verify.”
It was a seemingly apparent error: The youthful Elliott was billed for a process she did not have by a hospital she had not visited in years. But it took her practically a yr of hours-long telephone calls to undo the injury.
At first, nervous that she had been the sufferer of id theft, Grace E. Elliott contacted ShorePoint Health Venice and was bounced from one division to a different. At one level, a billing worker disclosed to Elliott the birthdate the hospital had on file for the affected person who had the shoulder alternative — it was not hers. Elliott then despatched the hospital a duplicate of her ID.
It took weeks for an administrator at ShorePoint’s company workplace in Florida to confess the hospital’s error and promise to right it.
In August, although, Grace E. Elliott obtained a discover that the company workplace had offered the debt to a collections company referred to as Medical Data Systems. Even although the hospital had acknowledged its error, the company was coming after Grace E. Elliott for the stability due for Grace A. Elliott’s shoulder surgical procedure.
“I assumed, ‘Well, I’ll simply work with them instantly,'” Grace E. Elliott mentioned.
Her attraction was denied. Medical Data Systems mentioned in its denial letter that it had contacted the hospital and confirmed the identify and deal with on file. The company additionally included a duplicate of Grace A. Elliott’s expired driver license to Grace E. — together with a number of pages of the older girl’s medical data — in help of its conclusion.
“A group company, as a enterprise affiliate of a hospital, has an obligation to make sure that the fallacious affected person’s data isn’t shared,” Hartsfield mentioned.
In an e mail to KHN, Cheryl Spanier, a vice chairman of the collections company wrote that “MDS follows all state and federal guidelines and rules.” Spanier declined to touch upon Elliott’s case, saying she wanted the written consent of each the well being system and the affected person to take action.
Elliott’s second attraction was additionally denied. She was instructed to contact the hospital to clear up the problem. But as a result of the well being system had lengthy since offered the debt, Elliott mentioned, she obtained no traction in making an attempt to get ShorePoint Health Venice to assist her. The hospital closed in September.
Resolution: In mid-November, shortly after a reporter contacted ShorePoint Health, which operates different hospitals and amenities in Florida, Grace E. Elliott obtained a name from Stanley Padfield, the Venice hospital’s outgoing privateness officer and director of well being data administration. “He mentioned, ‘It’s taken care of,’ ” Elliott mentioned, including that she was relieved however skeptical. “I’ve heard that time and again.”
Elliott mentioned Padfield instructed her that she had turn into listed as Grace A. Elliott’s guarantor, that means she was legally chargeable for the debt of a lady she had by no means met.
Elliott quickly obtained a letter from Padfield stating that ShorePoint Health had eliminated her data from Grace A. Elliott’s account and confirmed that she had not been reported to any credit score businesses. The letter mentioned her data had been faraway from the gathering company’s database and acknowledged that the hospital’s repair initially “was not appropriately communicated” to collections.
Padfield mentioned the error began with a “registration clerk,” who he mentioned had “obtained extra privateness schooling on account of this incident.”
Devyn Brazelton, advertising and marketing coordinator for ShorePoint Health, instructed KHN the hospital believes the error was “an remoted incident.”
Using the date of delivery supplied by a hospital employee, Elliott was in a position to contact Grace A. Elliott and clarify the mix-up.
“I’m just a little upset proper now,” Grace A. Elliott instructed KHN on the day she discovered concerning the billing error and disclosure of her medical data.
The Takeaway: Grace E. Elliott mentioned that when she requested Padfield, the Venice hospital’s outgoing privateness officer, whether or not she may have finished one thing to combat such an apparent case of mistaken id, he replied, “Probably not.”
This, specialists mentioned, is the darkish secret of id points: Once a mistake has been entered right into a database, it may be remarkably troublesome to repair. And such incorrect data can reside for generations.
For sufferers, which means it is essential to periodically evaluation the data in your affected person portal — the web medical profile many suppliers use to handle issues like scheduling appointments, organizing medical information, and answering affected person questions.
One draw back of digital medical information is that errors unfold simply and repeat regularly. It is vital to problem and proper errors in medical information early and forcefully, with each little bit of documentation accessible. That is true whether or not the issue is an incorrect identify, a medicine not (or by no means) taken, or an inaccurate prognosis.
The means of amending a file could be “very concerned,” Hartsfield mentioned. “But with sufferers in a position now to see increasingly of their medical information, they will need these amendments, and well being techniques and their associated entities must get ready for that.”
Grace A. Elliott instructed KHN that she had obtained a name from ShorePoint Health in the last few months indicating that she owed cash for her shoulder alternative.
She requested for a duplicate of the invoice, she instructed KHN. Months after she requested, it nonetheless hadn’t arrived.
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nationwide, editorially impartial program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).