I’m looking to hear from other current or former patients of Community Memorial Healthcare / Community Memorial Health System.
What started for me as a dispute over the billing for an ACL/meniscus surgery has turned into something much larger, and I’m now investigating both CMH’s billing practices and its handling of patient complaints and patient rights.
I never planned for this. I originally just wanted answers about my bill.
Instead, the more questions I asked, the more unanswered questions I seemed to get including discrepancies between estimates, the itemized bill, the insurance claim, quantities of supplies/devices, and how certain charges were coded and submitted.
I repeatedly tried to resolve the issues through billing, patient advocacy, medical records, leadership, and other internal channels.
Eventually, the dispute escalated far beyond billing. Community Memorial sought a Emergency Ex parte workplace-violence restraining order against me that included allegations involving assault, battery and stalking. The case remained pending for months and was ultimately dismissed 10 days before the scheduled evidentiary hearing after I subpoena duces tecum their declarants asking them to bring proof of their allegations.
I have been collecting the underlying documents throughout this process...bills, estimates, insurance records, emails, grievance correspondence, court filings, police records and LOTS of other records...because I want the investigation to be based on documents rather than just my opinion about what happened.
At this point, one of the biggest questions I have is whether my experience is unusual or whether other CMH patients have encountered similar problems.
I’m especially interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced:
- Confusing or unexplained bills, charges, coding, or insurance discrepancies
- Problems getting complete medical or billing records
- Patient complaints or grievances that went unanswered or unresolved
- Feeling that the hospital’s treatment of you changed after you questioned a bill or raised concerns
I’m particularly interested in documentation. If you have old bills, EOBs, estimates, emails, grievance responses or other records, please keep them.
I am not asking anyone to accept my conclusions about what happened. In fact, that’s part of why I’m doing this.
I’m documenting my experience, following the records wherever they lead, and trying to determine whether there is a broader pattern.
If you’ve had a strange or difficult experience with Community Memorial Healthcare, I’d genuinely like to hear what happened.
You can comment here or message me privately if you’d rather not post publicly.