Sanford Health

In 2018 I was referred to Maternal Fetal Medicine at Sanford Health Bismarck. Unfortunately, as I did not have insurance at the time, I was planning to pay for my appointment out of pocket. After receiving my more than $4, 000 bill in the mail, I called the medical billing office in order to set up a payment plan figuring I would pay about $50 a month. Instead, when I told the person I was speaking to that I could afford $50 a month at the very most, I was very rudely informed that the minimum monthly payment they could accept was $350. I told this person that there's absolutely no way I can afford $350 a month, I have other bills and I just had a baby. His response to that was that nobody else has a problem coming up with $350 a month and that I should try to find other areas to cut expenses or figure out something I can sell. Ummm...ok. I don't have a vehicle, I don't have a phone bill, I don't have cable or internet (I use the local library to get online), my kid isn't in daycare (his father and I work opposite shifts), I live in a one room efficiency, I cloth diaper and breastfeed- in what area of my life am I supposed to cut expenses?

I was sent an application for financial assistance in order to try to get my bill reduced, which I of course filled out completely and returned, along with all requested documents including paystubs, tax documents, etc. After doing all this, I heard nothing back so after a few weeks I called Sanford Health to find out what the status of my application was. I was informed that I never sent the requested documents so my application wasn't being processed. I said that absolutely was not true, I faxed everything they had asked me to. I was then told they never received my fax, I must have got the fax number wrong. I told the person I was speaking to that this also wasn't true, I have a receipt that I got after I sent the fax saying the fax was received. I offered to provide a copy of the receipt and a notarized statement from the place I sent the fax from saying that they don't accept payment for sending a fax until they get the receipt saying the fax was received. This lady told me she wasn't interested in that, but that she could give me a deadline extension in order to allow me to resend the documents. At this time I told her I don't have endless amounts of time and money to keep resending things and that I wanted it noted on my account that these documents had already been sent and received once. She refused. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, my call was transferred and I was told that they had in fact received my tax documents but that Sanford Health was refusing acceptance. I asked to have that refusal sent to me in writing and was told that Sanford doesn't communicate by mail, which I thought was strange since that's how they send me my bill, so I said that I thought they should know that since North Dakota is a one party recording state, I was recording the call. I was then told that if I resent the documents, Sanford Health would reconsider.

That same day, my son's father hand delivered all of the requested documents to the local billing office. After that, Sanford Health was never willing to communicate with me again regarding reducing my bill. I started sending the $25 a month I could afford, as at that point other medical facilities with more polite staff were my priorities, and never heard anything from them again until just a few days ago when I went online to pay a bill and discovered that despite my good faith efforts to pay Sanford Health, my account was sent into collections. I called to find out why that was and was told that they hadn't been able to communicate with me. My phone number never changed, my email never changed, my ability to access my online bill pay account never changed, and the address change that did occur was something they were notified of multiple times via email, snail mail, and phone call. This lady claimed there were numerous attempts to contact me via phone, email, and snail mail. I've gone through my phone records and email account with a fine toothed comb- Sanford Health never did any such thing. The customer service provided Sanford Health is shameful.

They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for going out of their way to refuse to work with people who are trying to pay their medical bills and for implying that people clearly need to cut expenses elsewhere if they can't afford to just drop an extra several hundred dollars a month out of nowhere. If they had been upfront with me about the amount of money I could expect to pay and the time frame they expected me to pay it in, I never would have consented to the medical care they wanted me to get. I would have gone without. To destroy the credit of a new family with their first baby just having been born is reprehensible. I absolutely hope everyone who deals with Sanford is aware of their unfair and shameful billing practices.