More Bergen County News

by: carolh

Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 01:03:05 PM EDT

Or this:
Senator's dual roles blur ethics boundaries about more Coniglio and Ferriero follies?

Let me tell you all a little story about Hackensack University Medical Center and the way they use Lawyers there.  In 2004, I went to the Allergy Center because I am THE poster child for food allergy.  Anyway, funny little thing happened a year later.  I get a bill from the hospital saying that I exceeded my benefits for that year.  After calling my insurance company and being told that I didn't owe that amount because the insurance co has a contract with the hospital and the hospital was ILLEGALLY balance billing me, I got a letter from the insurance co that I gave to the hospital informing them that a) I was covered, b) I did not EXCEED my benefits and c) all the hospital had to do was get the insurance company a proper bill.  Guess what happened.  The hospital billing Dept. went to collections anyway, destroyed my credit rating and took me to court.  Over a $400 bill.  Being a curious kid, I went online to the Judiciary info, and looked up how to fight it.  I filed a motion to vacate the judgement, sent the court the 21 pages of backup that proved my case and went to court when my case came up.  By that time the insurance company had paid the bill and as I stood there in court I watched the hospitals attorney tell the judge they were dropping the case against me because the insurance company was paying the bill.  As I was leaving the courtroom with the attorney I said to him - it's not your fault, the billing dept went after me no matter what I did.  He hung his head down in shame and sighed "They're just terrible".  I still had to fight to clear up my credit rating months later since a JUDGEMENT against me still appeared on my credit report and it looked like they just harrassed me until I paid.  It took me 2 and a half years to clear this up.

Then in 2006, I wound up in the hospital overnight, and got a $40,000 bill for an overnight stay, that my insurance company would not pay - I bypassed the billing Dept and went right to consumer affairs.  Suddenly, oh, it was all a mistake, and it got cleared up right away. 

I really think insurance companies get a bad rap because the Billing depts in Hospitals are extremely unethical in their practices.  We should really be examining the Billing practices if we are going to vilify the Insurance Companies.  At least that is what I observed from my horrific experiences with HUMC. 

Be VERY careful to examine EVERYTHING You get from the Hackensack University Medical Center billing Department.  They will take you to court in a heartbeat even if you are in the right.  They assume you did not save the backup like I did and they assume you would rather just pay the bill to get the lawyers off your back EVEN IF YOU DON'T OWE IT. They have an ARMY of lawyers, that they use when it is NOT warranted.

But, I digress,

I'm starting to see connections between Ferriero and zoning and eminent domain and frankly, it's giving me the Willies.  Especially when I know that Paul Sarlo and Joe Ferriero are bestest buddies.
Paul Sarlo and EnCap

See this one too:
EnCap Hires Xanadu Exec

The pressure on us Northern Valley towns from the Bergen County Executive about our Northern Valley rail line extension is starting to make an awful lot more sense.......