What rights do you have to not pay a hospital deductible if you feel the hospital made errors in with the procedure?
Question Details:
My mother went in the hospital for a kidney stone. The procedure was suppose to take 45 min, and recovery should have been 1-2 hours. The doctor performed the procedure in 15 min. My mom was in horrible pain for 20 hours. No doctor came to check in on her; no info was given to as to why this was happening. Nurses would come in and say please be quiet because she was crying too loud. After 3 weeks of her not feeling well, she went in on her own to get an X-ray done. Turns out that part of the stone was left in her kidney. The hospital says that they did everything right and refused to do anything else. My mom had to go to another doctor and hospital and pay for it all herself. She eventually passed the stone after a month. Now she has a $2000 deductible which we refuse to pay the hospital. We have done everything possible to have them reevaluate the charge and they refuse. We even went to small claims court and the judge says there was no case. What can we do?
Malpractice--if that was committed--is technically separate from payment for services rendered. First, if the hospital, doctor, etc. performed services, they need to be paid; if you believe that malpractice was committed you may have a claim for malpractice, but your claim for malpractice and their claim for services are separate and distinct. Second, the fact that you think malpractice was committed does not necessarily mean that it was or the hospital has to accept your claim--it has not been proven. You should consult with an attorney, one with malpractice experience, about whether you have a claim and what it might be worth; be sure to tell him or her about the small claims court, since prior adjudications, depending on the grounds upon which they were brought, can certainly affect your rights.
