SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- If you've ever been to the emergency room, you know it can be full of unwanted surprises, not the least of which is the bill. A San Francisco woman nearly fainted when she got hers and had to turn to 7 On Your Side for help.
ER bills will usually run you tens of thousands of dollars and like most patients this viewer got her insurance to cover most of it. However, just when she thought everything was settled, she got another demand for more money and she needed help to get it back.
San Francisco resident Chevon Jamerson works as a dental assistant while putting herself through college and raising a family. The last thing she needed was a medical emergency.
She recalls her medical emergency began with a stomach pain so severe she couldn't move. She said, "It was really painful, like I was getting out of my car and I couldn't make it up the stairs."
That's when a security guard for her apartment complex called the ambulance. She spent hours in the emergency room where they checked her appendix, ran scans and X-rays. However, doctors couldn't give her any answers, but what she did get was a huge bill.
"The hospital bill was for $34,673. I was like, 'Oh my goodness. What am I going to do about this bill?'" Jamerson said.
On top of that, she got a bill for the ambulance which was $1,754 owed to the San Francisco Fire Department. Thankfully, Medi-Cal agreed to cover most of the cost and Jamerson had to pay just $1,150 as her share for both bills.
She made all the payments, but just when she thought it was over, another bill came from the fire department saying she owed $600 more.
"It was frustrating because I knew how much I needed to pay between [both bills] and I kept trying to explain it," Jamerson said.
Jamerson paid the extra money and forgot about it, until a year later. A notice arrived saying indeed, she had paid $600 too much for the ambulance. She was told she would receive a check in the mail soon, but the check never came. So Jamerson contacted 7 On Your Side.
The fire department says there was a mix-up initially about whether Medi-Cal would cover the ambulance and later, the refund took too long. A SFFD spokesperson Mindy Talmadge said, "Ms. Jamerson has been stellar about this entire situation... I extend our sincere apologies for any hardship this may have caused her. This was simply a case of human error."
"And by the next week, I had received the check and I couldn't believe it! I was happy to say the least," Jamerson said.
The fire department tells 7 On Your Side an outside company handles billing, while the fire department itself handles refunds and this case simply slipped through the cracks.
If you have trouble with an overbilling, let me know about it. Contact me here.