CLEVELAND — Personal medical information is supposed to be protected, but what happens when hospital bills filled with health-related details end up at the wrong address? For a Doylestown woman, it meant absolute frustration with University Hospitals.
Nicole Shisler told me in mid-January she got a small bill with a big problem. “I’m baffled, because I don’t understand how you could mix this up,” she said.
The bill showed a child had received care at UH. The kid’s name, the account number, and the type of care were all on the bill, and it said the child’s parent worked at UH. The issue? “I’m not an employee. I don’t have kids, never even been a patient there (at UH),” Shisler told us.
TRYING TO CONTACT UH DURING BILL ISSUE
She said she called UH and was told they would look into it and she shouldn’t worry about it. However, in February, she said another bill showed up. She called UH again and said they asked for Shisler’s date of birth, but she didn’t want to do that.
“(The UH rep on the phone) said, ‘I can no longer help you.’ And she hung up on me,” said Shisler. She told me she carefully protects her personal information after being a victim of a recent data breach.
She filed complaints about the bills with the Better Business Bureau, Ohio’s Attorney General, and UH itself. But then, in March, another bill arrived. This time, it was for $500, and it was well past due.
“I was panicked. I was scared,” said Shisler. “I don’t want this going to collections. I just don’t need this.”
Shisler said she did some research and eventually found out there was a UH employee with a similar name, just one letter off.
“I don’t understand why this could not be fixed as soon as it happened,” said Shisler. “She was an employee. You should have her information.”
WE'VE REPORTED ON UH BILLING IN THE PAST
Her case is interesting because three years ago I did a story about UH sending a different child’s psychiatric care bills to Sue Kidd from Painesville.
“I kept telling them this is not my child. And they just seemed to think I was lying to them,” said Kidd.
She told us at the time it took more than a year to resolve the problem.
RELATED: UH 'very sorry' about billing woman for a child she doesn't even know
In 2021, we noted the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reporting health privacy rule complaints averaged two per every hour in the day. In 2024,it hasn’t gotten any better.
The funny thing is, this has happened to me, too. UH sent my daughter’s medical bills to a neighborhood home in Northfield. The problem is, I’ve never lived in Northfield. So, my search for answers brought me to Kelly McCabe’s front door. It appears after I called UH back in July about the invoices, they still sent more of my bills to McCabe’s house.
“I put it in the mailbox and put return to sender, but then they kept on coming back,” said McCabe. “It was weird.”
'IT IS A HIPAA VIOLATION,' SAID LAW EXPERT
Sharona Hoffman is a professor of law and bioethics at Case Western Reserve University. We asked, in general, if medical facilities are sending bills to the wrong addresses, is that a HIPAA violation?
“It is a HIPAA violation,” she replied. “Health care providers, in general, have to obtain patient permission for disclosure of identifiable patient information.”
When that permission is not given, and it takes months or longer to fix the privacy problems, overall, it’s not a good thing, said Hoffman.
“I think the Department of Health and Human Services would be very upset about that and is more likely to impose a financial penalty,” Hoffman said.
In our 2021 report, UH apologized for its billing mistake. This time around, UH is looking into Shisler’s case and, just today, asked for my daughter’s date of birth so its finance team can investigate my problems.
Shisler told us if you happen to get the wrong medical bills in your mail, don’t think you’re on your own.
“This is something you should not have to deal with,” Shisler said. “This is not your problem. It’s theirs. It’s their mistake. They should fix it.”
You can also file a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services through this link.
