Call your Insurance Carrier

If you are insured, here is what you can do. Call your insurance carrier and tell them that you want to report FRAUD! Insurance companies are not on your side either, but they do have lawyers on retainer. They are very interested in containing costs and here is where you get to tell them all about how the hospital gave you treatment that was unauthorized, unnecessary and against your will.

See if they can get the "conscious sedation" which was not explained to you removed from the bill. If the hospitals suddenly find that they are not going to get the MONEY for their drug of choice, they may think twice about injecting it. I am not sure how this will work, but we need to start complaining to people who actually have some power over the hospital and it isn't the poor patient. We are just the cash cows.

You can also go on-line and find your insurance group there. Write them an e-mail and send it to their FRAUD DEPARTMENT. It is usually listed on-line as "Report Fraud" or something similar. Outline your displeasure. Make sure they know, if applicable, that you must now have counseling, anti depression drugs etc, due to the laxness of the hospital's policies regarding "informed consent" and patient autonomy. Demand that they not pay for these anesthesia services which were fraudulently given and billed.

See if you will have to pay out of pocket if they decline payment. I don't think so, but I am not a lawyer.

If you are not insured, write to the fraud department anyway. Tell them that they are paying for frivolous things like "conscious sedation" and it is driving insurance rates up by paying for this unnecessary "drug therapy." Name the hospital that is using deceptive practices to line their pockets.

This is FRAUD by the way. Charging for services that are not necessary is FRAUD! Charging for services declined by the patient is FRAUD! No wonder our insurance premiums are beyond reach for a lot of working people! Desperately poor people have some kind of state run health care, people who are lucky enough to have a good job have employer provided health care, but other working people have nothing.

Maybe if the insurance companies quit paying for the extremely expensive "conscious sedation" we would be able to get some insurance for everybody.