Western Missouri Medical Center — Local services in Warrensburg

I don't know how this place could be called a hospital. After many experiences with their Express Care I now refuse to return to their "medical center." At one of my first experience with WMMC was more than poor. I went in to Express Care due symptoms of a strep throat. I went into this building that looked to be like an afterthought. Visited a receptionist who seemed to be fed up with my presence. This was followed by what seemed to be an abnomally long wait for an empty waiting room. I was seen by their nurse practitioner who also seemed to be annoyed. Although the staff had terrible customer service, I continued to visit Express Care due to the lack of another location.

THIS IS WHAT COMPLETELY RUINED THEM During a visit with my fiance, who was experiencing some abnormal vaginal bleeding, the nurse went half way through with the pelvic exam with the door open. After other patients began to walk down the hall the two nurses in the our exam room giggled and one said "well I guess we should close this," as she closed the door.

Later that week we called customer service and complained about the service. We got the run around and kept being told that we would receive a call to resolve this. Eventually we received a letter saying that they felt their services were adequate and if we wanted to do anything more we should contact Jefferson City. (Which we did)

After a mess of billing we received threats of going to collections multiple times, even after paying. Two-three months ago we went to their billing department in the basement of another building to sort everything out. The receptionist gave us a total and told us that's all we owed and we should be good. We paid it while we were there. But before leaving she said there was something weird with our account and made a few calls while we were there. After not solving anything she told us someone would call us. And of course nobody ever called.

This past week we received another bill from WMMC.

Unless I am dying I will NOT go to Western Missouri again. They may have everything they need to treat you but they have the worst customer service I have ever seen at a care facility. Avoid WMMC at all cost! UPDATE!!! 10/08/18

Today we received a call telling us that we owe $1300+. "According to their records" my wife was seen by NP Patricia Garcia and had labs run. However, we have not been back to Express Care since our last issue, where NP Garcia works. My wife did go in to Labor and Delivery to be monitored in September but never saw a doctor or NP, only nurses. At the time we were covered by Missouri Medicare for Pregnant Women, which should have covered everything.

Fast forward to today.... We got a call aledging that we owe this money and we haven't had any contact with their office since this visit. We spoke with Wendy from the Extended Business Office for Patient Finacial Service. She attempted to transfer us to Customer Service who didn't answer. We were then transferred back to Wendy who inadvertently answered the phone early and said "Oh my God, are you serious. No one is available in customer service." Then she realized we were on the line and said "Oh are you still there." Wendy told us that they tried to contact us multiple times, however, we never received a bill, email, or call. We moved from Warrensburg in February and had our mail forwarded with the post office. It took over a year for them to contact us about this balance for a NP we didn't see and Labs that didn't get done. We didnt get anything resolved today but we were told someone would call us back, which in the past has never happened. We also recieved the Patient Advocate phone number which we called and left a voicemail. All the stress that WMMC has caused is ridiculous. Once again this not a place I would go if I could help it. I sincerely hope that this can be resolved and that insurance still covers this. Customer service at WMMC is...

Western Missouri Medical- My best endorsement is - it's all that is available in Warrensburg. I have caught Doctors, Nurses, and Administration staff lying about communicating with other health professionals, why something was missed during ER, why they gave and charged for a test that could not be conclusive because their equipment was not capable, instead of informing the doctor and/or my wife and I. Making us go elsewhere to get a valid test and be billed for both. We've had very rude treatment by various staff that essentially seemed like: They felt being overweight was our fault and was something we should just go home and handle, then come back if the symptoms that brought us there hadn't gone away; They saw that we were regular customers (with an unpaid balance), so were probably just there wasting important people's time and keeping those really needing it away from care; we gave too many details, until something goes wrong and then we didn't mention that at all or at least emphatically enough for them to take notice/us seriously. Despite having documentation for nearly 20 years from our visits there and to partner doctors and facilities - they've told us they didn't have all the information necessary to make a good decision... or that WE were not forthcoming enough with information! ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME KNOWS TOO LITTLE INFO IS SELDOM AN ISSUE...sorry for shouting. Make their bills so confusing even insurance filing professionals can't make sense of it. -Half the time my wife goes in to have blood drawn or an IV (like iron treatments) they aignore us the first 3 times we say, "She's a hard stick. Her veins roll and hide. You usually have to call in the reinforcements..." So she ends up with a world map of bruises that often takes months to go away. The ringer almost always says - "Why wasn't I called immediately?" They insist you see their staff doctors and don't keep your primary care physician informed in a timely manner. [When asked about a prescription for an NSAID our primary doctor had said "never take again" because of stomach bleeding and iron deficiency history my wife has.... We were told the doctor had been informed. I specifically asked, "This is the weekend. Has he been called and conferred with, or did they simply put the information in her chart and give him digital access to those notes?" With an eye shift, the nurse said the attending doctor had made the appropriate contact and consultation before prescribing meds. When she left the room, I called Dr. Hasan and he said, "No one has contacted me, why is she in the hospital?" -On numerous occasions my wife and I have gone to this hospital for outpatient testing or procedures or the ER, after an appointment/preapproval was set up by our doctor's office, only to find that they could not accommodate our size - despite records showing we are obese... several weight recordings at both the hospital and the doctor's office should have been readily available. So we were charged for an outpatient visit to say - "We didn't preapprove with the necessary facts and documents required for this procedur to be successful. Now, we have met some dedicated, competent, caring and efficient professionals there... and they are always such a welcome surprise. So if rudeness, dishonesty, negligence, incompetence, lack of attention to detail and all around poor service are what you are after - WMMC won't...

Where to start.... I went to WMMC ER for abdominal pain around 12:30am one night, after waiting 2 hours in an empty ER I was finally taken back to have a CT scan done, which I then had to wait another 2 hours to get the results of. Prior to getting the results, a Dr. came in letting me know that they were going to be discharging me shortly as the CT scan did not show anything. 30 minutes later I was being moved into a patient room to have surgery later that morning for a procedure that could have been life threatening if left undone. The general surgery Dr. was phenomenal, but when it came to billing this place is a disaster. As a full time college student I received an original bill of $22,000 as they had billed me for inpatient services and other items that I had not received during my outpatient procedure at WMMC. I went into financial aid the month I received my first bill to discuss payment, and this is when they discovered the errors. I was planning to set up payment plans and to apply for financial assistance as there was no way I, as a full time student, could pay a medical bill that large. Before I could make any payments on the account they had to correct all billing charges, re-send it to insurance and I was instructed to come in a month later to get everything set up...a month later I returned and was denied financial assistance due to having insurance (even though I was still left with a $7,000 bill) and was expected to pay $350 a month. We finally were told that they would accept $50 a month and paid this amount monthly and we were never told that this woud have to change.....fast forward TWO years, we made a call to the financial aid office, with the help of a friend who has medical billing experience, hoping to get something figured out and to get it paid off. We asked to be transferred to someone who could help us with this and had to leave a message, and unsurprisingly, we never received a call back. 3 months later we received a statement that we had an outstanding balance and notification that we would be sent to collections. When calling the financial aid office again, we were told that the original payment plan should not have been accepted and that we should have been told we needed to pay the bill off in 3 years. I called and asked, with the help of my parents, if we could pay a set amount to settle all medical bills and they denied our request. DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE GREAT INSURANCE THAT WILL COVER A MAJORITY OF YOUR MEDICAL BILLS or have the ability to make substantial payments for the balance owed. You will NOT get any kind of financial assistance, even as a full time student. I would have gone to St. Luke's East in Lee's Summit had I known they had no desire to work with individuals who have limited finances, especially for procedures that are emergent. After talking with individuals who have had similar experiences at hospitals such as St. Luke's and North Kansas City, they were NEVER denied financial assistance for...