Healthcare Stories Draw Interest  12/7/2013

“It’s despicable that the insurance companies and the hospitals don’t take the time to negotiate for the patients,” Tina Gomez-Bennett said in an online comment. “It’s more despicable that they can get away with charging so darn much money and then negotiate it after countless encounters with whoever, the media, etc. … and then decide that the patient didn’t have to pay it after all.”

The lawyer, Bill Richardson, credited Call 12 with helping resolve the dispute with his insurance company, which wanted him to pay $120,000 because he used an out-of-network hospital. He said Call 12 helped to get the hospital and the insurance company to negotiate and erase $118,000 of the charges.