Thursday, August 19, 2010
Carilion serves bill-pay lawsuit on patient in her hospital bed
'Just unbelieveable,' says patient advocate. Carilion withdrew the case.
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The lawsuit was served on Harnsberger Aug. 9 — while she was still a patient at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.
Carilion and other health care systems have long had a practice of suing former patients for unpaid bills. But it’s far more unusual for a provider to take legal action against someone still under its care.
"This is just unbelievable," said Pat Palmer, founder of Medical Billing Advocates of America, a Salem-based firm that assists patients with billing disputes.
After being asked about the case on Wednesday, Carilion officials said today that the lawsuit has been withdrawn.
"It is not our practice to serve patients with any type of collection notice while they are still hospitalized," Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart wrote in an e-mail.
"This was a unique situation, and unfortunately I am unable to provide you with additional details. The purpose of the suit was to find additional information -- it has since been withdrawn."
In a motion filed
today, Carilion asked that the lawsuit be dismissed "without prejudice" --
meaning that it reserves the right to bring a similar legal action in the
future. The
motion was granted by Circuit Court Judge Jonathan Apgar.
At the time the case
was dismissed, Harnsberger had not responded to Carilion's demand for payment.
Had she not responded within 21 days of receiving notice of the lawsuit, a
default judgment would likely have been issued against her.
Harnsberger, who remains a patient at Roanoke Memorial, declined to comment Wednesday when reached by telephone in her hospital room.
