Below is a copy of the letter I sent to SLUCare... we'll see if I get any response.
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2/12/14
An Open Letter to SLUCare CEO, Gary Van House:
Dear Mr. House:
You don’t know me but I am currently a cancer patient receiving
chemotherapy treatment for stage 3A colon cancer at St. Louis University Cancer
Center. Why does this matter to you ,
you ask, and why am I writing you?
I am writing because your company, outside of its doctors
and nurses, seems more interested in me as a profit center than as a human
being working to survive my cancer diagnosis and treatment. No one wakes up deciding to get cancer so
they can ‘enjoy’ undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery. No one decides to get cancer because they
want to have thousands of dollars of additional medical bills to pay. No one chooses to experience any of these
things. But for those of us ‘lucky people’
who get the cancer diagnosis and are told we need surgery and after that
chemotherapy for six months and that none of it is a guarantee that we will be
cured, we get put on the cancer/chemotherapy conveyor belt and our lives are
never the same.
There are physical, emotional and financial stresses of
going through treatment and living with cancer.
Do you know what it’s like to have your hands and feet hurt constantly
with prickly, stabbing pain? That it’s
something you just have to endure because it’s one of the side effects of the
most expensive chemo drug ($10K a treatment) being pumped into your body (which
only promises a 5% increase in the likelihood of a cure)? Do you know what it’s like to not be able to
swallow without feeling like someone has scraped your mouth with broken pieces
of glass? Do you know what it’s like to have handfuls of your hair fall out
daily? Do you know what it’s like to worry that every new ache or pain could be
a sign that the cancer is back or growing or not reacting to treatment? Do you know what it’s like to worry how you
are going to pay for all the bills in your quest to stay alive? Do you know
what it’s like to end up in the ER five times in six months because your immune
system is compromised? Do you know what it’s like to only be able to muster up
the energy to go from bed to couch to back to bed for days on end? Do you know what it’s like to tell your
children you have cancer? Do you know
what it’s like to keep working through all this because you have to keep your
income and insurance? Do you know what
it’s like to do all this as a single parent on a single income?
I didn’t think so.
Because if you had, you certainly wouldn’t have your billing
department call me on a Saturday morning to complain that I have let my bill
get out of hand and that I wasn’t paying enough money every month. You wouldn’t have your billing department
ignore the fact that I was paying twice as much as the agreed budgeted amount every month and that I had never
missed a payment. Even after I told your
billing representative that I didn’t set the prices of the chemotherapy drugs,
that I was simply following my oncologist’s directives for beating this
wretched disease and that I didn’t have any control over what was being billed,
she replied that my bill was simply too much anymore. I asked the representative if she wanted me to
survive my cancer treatment, she said that, of course, she did.
Do you want me to
beat this cancer? It seems not.
Yesterday, two weeks after my latest SLUCare bill (and one
week after my last payment) which includes the statement about the agreed
budgeted amount, I received a collection notice from Consumer Collection
Management in Maryland Heights telling me that my account has been listed with
their office for collection. Yes, that
is correct, your company listed me as a bad debt.
Stress. Stress
negates any positive benefit that one can get from chemotherapy. Your company’s aggressive tactics have only
added more stress to an already over-the-top-maxed-out stressful situation. Your practices infer to me that you don’t
have a lot of confidence that those receiving cancer treatment from your company
will survive long enough to pay you, so you better get those dollars now,
today, pronto. Your company’s policies
treat me as if I have been neglectful towards my medical bill with you, when in
fact, I haven’t.
I have paid the agreed budgeted amount every two weeks. Yes the bill increased, I couldn’t control
that. Insurance calendar years and
resetting high deductibles and out of pocket amounts are not things I can control. But your company’s unwarranted punitive
actions are heartless, uncaring and tell me that greed is SLUCare’s motivation
not patient survival and health.
As your practices and policies currently stand, I cannot and
will not in good conscience recommend to anyone facing a cancer diagnosis to
come to SLU Cancer Center. And it’s not
because the care has been inadequate but because compassion, understanding,
flexibility and a sense of humanity is not present beyond the patient care
team. It appears, if one receives
treatment from your organization, the only guarantee is they will be harassed
by your billing department.
As the Chief Executive Officer, don’t you think you can do
better, be better? Don't you want to?
I have included my contact information should you have a
desire to talk further with me.
And I hope, sir, you never have to face cancer.
Sincerely,
The Philosopher
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