The care I received was top-notch. The billing, on the other hand, has literally degraded my quality of life.
Here's what happened to me. Out of the blue, I get a collections notice for a bill I didn't even know existed. The billing company (Epic) didn't talk to the hospital (North Valley) and sent me to collections (Mountain Land Collections).
I received the collections notice on December 15. In tears, I called the collections agency. The company taking me to collections didn't ring a bell, but with the date of service, I was able to deduce that it was North Valley. I had already received a bill from North Valley for that DOS and figured there was some sort of mishap. Turns out, there were two bills - one for facility and one for physician. The collections agency told me that I had until January 19 to pay the bill without having anything reported to the credit agencies.
I called North Valley, who sent me to their billing service - Epic Physician Services (or something like that). Epic had no record of me. Went back to the hospital, someone from the hospital called Epic, they found me, and deduced that they were unable to bill me because they didn't have my address (even though this was provided to North Valley on the date of service and had not changed - they blamed some botched data dump between systems). The genuinely helpful billing manager at North Valley was able to negotiate with Epic to get everything back from collections, billed me directly, and everything was paid and cleared by January 20.
Around February 1, I see that I have one account in collections on my credit report. They indicate that I was brought to collections in August - though I was not notified until December. I called Mountain Land Collections and they indicated that they reported the collections notice to the credit agencies on December 31 and pulled it back on January 15. I asked for a document from Mountain Land Collections indicating that I was wrongfully brought to collections, but apparently they don't do that sort of helpful, professional thing.
I'm trying to buy a house - this does not help me. I have had a completely blemish-free credit report right up until the year I'm going to the bank for the biggest loan of my life, for somebody else's mistake. And, frankly, I blame North Valley for their choice in physician billing software. I can't pay a bill I don't know exists. I sought service from North Valley, not from Epic Physician Services, and rely on North Valley to make good business decisions about how my account will be handled.