Lisa Powell-Dejong gave birth to her daughter, Liberty Mae, a month before the baby was due. While Ms. Powell-Dejong expected to see charges for her daughter’s five-day NICU stay on the invoice, the circumcision charge caught her eye.
Ms. Powell-Dejong contacted 9News about her medical bill. Within a day of contacting a Sky Ridge Medical Center spokesperson, Ms. Powell-Dejong had her answer: It was a coding error.
“This simple, human coding error did not impact the patient’s final bill nor did it impact insurance reimbursement,” Sky Ridge Medical Center spokesperson Linda Watson told 9News. “We corrected the invoice as soon as we learned of the issue, notified the patient and sent an updated version to the insurance company. We always encourage patients with billing questions or concerns to contact us directly so we can address them quickly.”
As the invoice showed charges before insurance kicked in, it’s unclear whether Ms. Powell-Dejong’s insurer would have caught the erroneous code.
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