Hutchinson Regional Medical Center — Local services in Hutchinson

Had a procedure done in April. This was a last minute surgery, scheduled the exact same day. I had about 3 hours of notice before I needed to check in. They called an hour beforehand to let me know they had talked to my insurance and I would be required to pay a large amount upfront to cover the procedure. I understood and agreed to this. My experience with the staff and the procedure itself was fantastic. Zero complaints, facility is very clean and I was comfortable. My issue is with billing. I paid $4,000 upfront for this procedure and that was the remainder of my out of pocket maximum. I had several other appointments after this, and imaging. The hospital took a month to even let insurance know that there was a claim, so my insurance had no idea that I had already paid my maximum out of pocket. I continued to get bills for additional procedures because my insurance did not know. I called several times to ask when the claim would be sent to my insurance and explained the situation. Each time, I was told I just had to wait and that it can take months. This is unacceptable to require upfront payment and then take months to talk to insurance about it. Because of this, I will never use the hospital for any procedure again. The claim was finally sent to my insurance and it only took my insurance 3 days to process and fully pay the hospital. Because other claims had processed during the inbetween time, it was determined that I overpaid the hospital by $2700. I called the hospital a week after my insurance paid the claim (I can see it all online) and I was told the hospital had not been paid yet. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited 2 more weeks before calling again. I left a voicemail and nobody called me back. I waited two days and called again. At that point, we are over a month since my insurance paid them. The person answering the phone again tells me that they have not been paid. I said I need to see proof of that, because my insurance paid you over a month ago and I need my refund now to pay additional medical bills. I was told they could not provide proof, but she offered to let me talk to a supervisor. I talked to a supervisor who told me they were paid 3 weeks ago but that they can't get me a check until next week because a "biller" still needs to finalize it and cut the check. At least the supervisor admitted they had been paid. I'm happy they will issue a check next week, but this process needs to be improved immediately. I had to pay upfront for a lifesaving procedure, but they get to fool around with returning money I am owed. And the people answering the phones for patient accounts do not know what they are talking about, only the supervisor told...

For context, in december my mom caught and recovered from covid. Her primary doctor, and pulmonologist gave prescriptions to recover, and she was visited by two therapists and a nurse on a weekly basis. They all confirmed her lungs were not damaged by covid's effects and she was healing nicely. She was kept on oxygen because she still had trouble breathing on her own but was assured this wouldn't be permanent. She was alert, was able to walk and for two months she was slowly recovering.

A week ago my mother was brought to the hospital due to a pain in her chest. The paramedics checked her and said she wasn't experiencing a heart attack but it could possibly be angina or an anxiety attack. They suggested she go to the hospital to check.

She has pulmonary fibrosis and arthritis and brought all her prescription meds with her so they would know what she was taking. At the hospital, they lost all of her meds that treated her pulmonary and arthritis. So they kept her for a week on ativan and morphine alone.

We were given different stories each time. That she had covid again, that she had a blood infection, a bacterial infection, and pneumonia. And how when her oxygen levels would stabilize she would be moved out of ICU. They were rising, and suddenly she has heart failure.

When we finally visited her she was half dressed, uncomfortable and in a cold, dark room. She had a fever no one was tending to. She could barely talk. Her condition worsened when she went to the hospital. The doctor told us she had pulmonary, which we already knew. And said they couldn't do anything and we should take her to hospice.

The doctor seemed very surprised when I told them that my mother was alert and able to walk on her own before any of this happened. During her stay my mom would text saying no one knew what to...

This hospital tells a patient that if she doesn't put $16,000 up front for surgery, they will cancel it. She is told this the day before surgery. How many people can do that? A payment agreement had been made for $200 down and the rest by payments til paid off. The hospital went back on their word. Spoke to one person who said surgery would not be cancelled, then one calls and says the $16,000 had to be paid or be cancelled . Another said they could get her financial aid and surgery would be done. In the end it was cancelled because she couldn't come up with $16,000 overnight. She now may lose her job since her knee is so bad she can't work. Also, they had given her time off to do surgery and rehab and they can't continue to take her off schedule and she still doesn't get the surgery. She has now hopefully gotten financial help but why wasn't she helped ahead of time? She hopes this does work and not another mixup. She is waiting for the reschedule to be done. Once this is all done and taken care of we might be able to give a better review. Hopefully they will improve how they deal with requesting so much upfront and scheduling. It didn't take long for it to all fall apart. They are now refusing to give financial aid because she didn't tell them that her insurance had denied it. Well, that is why she needs financial aid. Her insurance had wanted her to fly to Minnesota or some state for the surgery and someone had to go with her. She doesn't have someone to go. But they refuse to do it here. What sense does that make?. So now the surgery is off again. This really stinks. Told her to call guest relations as suggested here. Don't know if that will do any good. Surgery on and off, on and off isn't good for her...