Banner Health

I attempted to pay a bill of $552 on the Banner Website using my Curae account. At no point was I able to specify a different amount.

After the payment was completed I received a Banner receipt thanking me for my payment of $6,097. After finally getting in touch with someone at Banner billing who could help, I was told the only option was for a refund to my Curae account which can take up to 30 days. Now my card is maxed out and in the meantime my minimum payment will go up and my credit will also take a hit with a maxed out credit account.

This needs to be looked into as how Banner was able over charge my account and max it out. Not one person from Banner has apologized for this and I find it unacceptable that a credit can be done sooner.

I started receiving debt collection calls on November 15th, 2024. The debt agency, RMP Services LLC, advised an amount of $169.50 with the original creditor being BMG Phoenix East.

I had never received any bill for this amount, nor did I have any outstanding debt when I renewed my policy with Banner Aetna just a month prior so I could not understand how I could be in collections for the first time in my life. The debt agency you utilize refuses to answer phone calls outside of the AI bot they use to inform you of the amount and name of the original creditor along with a prompt to pay. I have not spent well over 2 hours on hold before calls get dropped attempting to contact your debt agency. As a result, I wrote to the BBB for assistance on November 22, 2024 as well as making contact with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

On November 25, 2024 your associate tersely responded to the BBB and my request for a call with a brief email stating my insurer (AETNA) denied the entire claim for a visit I had to my primary care physician for annual physical on April 19, 2024.

They stated they sent the claim on April 25, 2024, and Aetna denied the whole claim for the visit of $339. Then they stated that they indeed sent 3 bills in June 2024, July 2024, and September 2024 before adjusting my bill from $339 to $169 for a self-pay discount in October 2024 and sending me to collections in November 2024 for non-payment. Your representative public response is essentially that I hadn't paid so I had to take that up with your collections agency and I deserve no further assistance from Banner. She dismissed my request for assistance, a call, or my concern that I had received no bill, no EOB, nothing.

Her response was so aggravating that I called Aetna and demanded a manager with the threat of filing a DOI complaint if needed to address their failure to provide any EOB, and denying my entire visit for an in network primary care physician visit for a physical via my Banner Aetna HMO plan.

Aetna: After a few hours waiting to speak with a supervisor/manager I finally was able to get a knowledgeable and service-oriented individual. She confirmed that they did receive a claim on April 25, 2024 but they denied it because the Banner office at 453 E Ray Rd. in Phoenix submitted it under the name of Banner Colorado rather than the physician's name. As a result, they were unable to determine if my visit was in-network.

She advised they sent a request to the office to resubmit with the physician but the office did not. She added that this has been happening frequently with individual offices, and she asserted that given the frequency that may be doing this to get customers to pay out of pocket at higher rates than the contracted rates via your patient's insurance coverages. At best it is negligent and incompetent. At worst, it is fraudulent.

Not many customers are going to spend as much time as I have trying to figure this out. And, in the event my insurer does cover the office visit to my primary care physician (which seems pretty likely) then the debt collection amount is inaccurate and in violation of the FDCPA. Unlike Banner's response to my BBB inquiry, the Aetna supervisor saw this as a significant issue and agreed to follow up tomorrow directly with the office and call me back.

Banner Billing: Upon ending the call with Aetna I called the Banner Billing department. After explaining the situation, the representative advised that it is very possible no bills went out because my claim was in limbo with the insurer asking for the office to resubmit and the office failing to take any action to put a hold on billing.

She advised that in that scenario bills may not actually go out. She was surprised by the comments made by the Banner Supervisor regarding coding for billing. In response she added that Aetna is not the preferred insurer to work with at Banner, and that Banner works a lot more seamlessly with Blue Cross Blue Shield. Apparently, Aetna makes a lot of errors as well.

However, as a consumer I purchase an HMO plan via Banner Aetna. I expect that Banner and Aetna are able to work together, communicate and serve me as the customer. If that isn't the case, then you're misrepresenting the product/service you are selling to consumers under the Banner Aetna plan.

I do know your process for who follows up with a claim when it is denied but it cannot fall to your consumer if neither Banner or Aetna take any action to inform the consumer as has been the case for me. The broken partnership should not be to the financial, reputations and personal detriment of your consumers.

Either way it appears a coding issue and failure to communicate between Banner Aetna on my behalf has resulted in my continuing to be in debt collection for what is likely to be an inaccurate amount. No one can tell me how you can rescind collections, so I am being harassed by your debt collection agency. I just spent $16 to send a certified letter with tracking demanding a validation of the debt so I could understand what it was I even owed because I've never even seen a bill from my health care provider.

A reasonable resolution to me would be:

1. Rescind collections that was initiated November 2024

2.

Ensure that RMP Services LLC has made more reports to credit agencies, and if they have, you will work with them to remove them immediately.

3.

Have the office resubmit the bill to Aetna with the correct information so that Aetna may assess coverage

4. While it is unlikely the entire amount will be denied, if a remaining balance still exists, I am more than happy to pay any amount owed directly to Banner as I do with all over bills

I believe my expectations for resolution are exceptionally reasonable, but given my experience thus far it seems logic and reason are not part of the Banner culture.

I went the ER at Banner University Medical Center South in Tucson. I was having diarrhea for a month and my doctor kept throwing antibiotics and acid reflux pills at me, Anti-diarrhea OTC meds did not even slow it down.

I dont have acid reflux for the record. Nothing was working! I passed up two other very poor at helping patients hospitals that were a lot closer, this one was 60 miles away. My BP was low 92/74, the morning of the day I went to the ER.

They took numerous tests but found nothing so they sent me home. In the past if you are dehydrated at all, a hospital should put a person on an IV. They told me there was a shortage and refused to put me on one. They wanted me to give them a sample.

I said if you want me to give you a sample I have to have something to drink. The first person/nurse said we cant give you anything to drink without the doctors orders. I dont think they realize how stupid they sound. They finally brought me a glass of water, and a very small cup of apple juice.

I was able to give them a sample.
I went home no better. My diarrhea goes from mostly watery to a little bit thicker. Nothing stays in my body for more than a couple of minutes. Since the doctors and hospitals are not doing their job, I have quit taking three of my medications that are known to cause diarrhea, and I am trying natural solutions.

It is not worth going to the hospital or the doctors anymore. Because you have to treat yourself and you have to figure out what is wrong when they are getting paid, but not doing anything. This is a very sad country we live in and only getting worse. We are the country with the poorest health conditions but yet they brag about opportunities here.

I am still not better. Ive been running a fever up to 102. My Husband was going crazy the other day, he wanted to take me to the ER but knew that it was useless.
In my research, I discovered that Rosuvastatin, Lisinopril and Metformin can all cause diarrhea, so I quit taking all of those. I have taken good quality probiotics for years.

(Something my doctor kept telling me to take and then forgetting he told me, apparently.) If the doctors or the hospital had done any research at all, they couldve mentioned maybe it was some medication I was taking, but, forwarning, I asked them if they needed to know what medications I am on and they said no. What kind of medical center doesnt require a history. I used to be an EMT, and that was one of the first questions we had to ask!
While doing research, I learned that the hospitals are now starting to refuse patients with a Medicare advantage plan, because they dont pay the hospital soon enough, and I can tell you that any hospital I have gone to since being on Medicare is worse than the last one I went to. I have private insurance through my Husband and Medicare because I have been disabled for 11 years.

I am almost 60 years old, and I have worked very hard physically my whole life, until I got sick. Im hoping to get into a doctor in January, who refuses to take insurance because the insurance companies wont pay for individualized treatment. They only pay for the people who appear to fit in the little box and the medications that fit inside that box that the Pharmacy companies are paying them to prescribe. So I will be paying for two insurances, and not being able to use them, as well as a doctor who says he wont take insurance because they wont pay him to help me.

I am $30,000 in debt. I make $20,000 a year and I am tired of being treated like I am not worth being helped.

...before I took my business there.

Full Disclosure: I'm a grumpy old guy who despises what they jokingly refer to as "customer service" in this "Utopia" that's been created for us.

Like many of you, I'm finding our new health care system and the relationships we have with the people working in health care to be less than ideal. I've finally given up on my PCP in Winslow because I refuse to drive 50 miles one way for the quarterly appointments my doctor insists I make - I'm convinced this is a purely financial decision doctors make and has nothing to do with the patient's health.

So I began shopping and started with Banner in Payson.

I spoke with the Office Manager personally, and explained what I'm looking for in a doctor. She said she understood and thought Doctor Crandell would be a good match for me and set me up with an initial consultation so we could meet.

On the day of my appointment I checked in and was forced to go through the asinine War & Peace novel (that multipage legal agreement they have on the tablet) all doctor's offices make us go through, with print so small you'd be there 2 hours if you actually read it (why is it legal to do this to people?) - basically forcing us to sign all our Rights away.

After that we got to the really important part...and no, it had nothing to do with, "How are you feeling today?" or "How can we help?"...

The really important part is, "It looks like you have a copay due. How will you be paying that today?"

I answered I was only in to meet the doctor, and I really wasn't there for a medical appointment. The young woman behind the counter wasn't sure how to proceed, so she asked another very heavy set, middle-aged woman with a crew cut (I didn't catch her name) who basically told me I had to pay up front.

I explained to her that I hadn't decided if I would be using Dr. Crandell, but if I did, and he wanted to perform a medical service today, I would be happy to pay for services *after* they were rendered.

She was adamant that I had to pay the $20 copay up front.

I cancelled the appointment and left. I am the customer. I am the patient.

And I refuse to be treated this way by an employee.

At this point I have to wonder if doctors are even aware of how patients are being treated by the front office staff? Or maybe the question is even more basic than that. Maybe doctors don't really run their offices anymore. Maybe Banner owns the office and all the facility and the doctor is just another employee who gets no say whatsoever.

At least that would explain why they get away with this - and they don't appear to care that the service they offer the public is dreadful.

I want my old health care system back.

I don't want my doctor to be a repetitive part of my life. I want to go see him when something hurts and that's it.

I get it some of you like that and go see yours once a month. You be you.

But please let me be me!

The medical side of banner is great - the billing side is far from that. No one is able to offer any real help, you are talked to as if you are uneducated, and are not held responsible for any mistakes.

I firmly believe once you have an account with banner, they will continue to add charges and remove payments in order to keep charging you. They cannot offer any explanation why the prices continue to change even though the balance had previously been paid in full. Charging double on a bill that had previously been settled sure seems illegal.

No other company would be able to maintain a customer base with practices like this. The medical monopoly and chokehold they have on the country is a nightmare.