FF12: Billing mistake leads to trouble for KS veteran

A Kansas veteran turned to FactFinder 12 Investigators when debt collectors came after him for something he didn't owe.

“It was a last resort. My wife handed me an envelope and said you got a bill here from collections agencies. I said no…we’ve done dealt with this long enough,” says veteran Jim Meeks.

Meeks, although semi-retired, still works hard as a contractor. His life was brought to a halt last year when he was visiting the Hutchinson VA clinic and had to be taken by ambulance to the emergency room at Hutchinson Regional Hospital.

That visit was followed by a $9,200 hospital bill and later a collection notice for $830 that left him feeling helpless.

“Something like this puts you downhill more than what you need,” says Meeks.

The cost of the hospital bill is supposed to be covered by the VA.

“The coding is the most important thing. We have to have the correct coding to pay and we still haven't received the correct coding,” says Rob Cain, spokesperson with the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center.

Without that proper coding the VA didn't pay the Hutchinson hospital.

Despite Meek's repeated attempts by phone and visits to clear things up, he says no one would help.

“We'd called and made special trips to Wichita to get it taken care of,” says Meeks.

The Hutchinson hospital says its billing system is part of the problem.

“We found the claims had not been paid. We sent things to the VA. However, one of the problems with our billing system is, if you call and we know it's going to be paid by a third party, it still goes out and says it's past due. That's frustrating for the patient,” says Hutchinson hospital spokesperson Sue Wray.

She says that system is now being updated and will not create that problem in the future. She also says they tried several times to communicate with the VA to get it cleared up, but that didn’t happen.

The VA says it is now working with Meeks to help him get the issue cleared.

“I want to thank Channel 12 for bringing this to our attention. We brought it up in our staff meeting and our interim director put a team on it and said let's find out what's going on,” says Cain.

Although there is still some dispute between the two medical centers, Meek’s case is being cleared up. The debt collectors have been called off.

“I slept pretty well last night,” says Meeks.

“The VA is going to do more and more handshaking with private medical centers and both sides are going to have to learn how to communicate with each other,” says Cain.

Both hospitals are also looking at ways to improve after Meeks was caught in the middle.

“It seems that happened and through no fault of his own. If we played a role in that we're very sorry and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen,” says Wray.