...Carlsbad resident Michael Krival thinks he got a taste of that
medicine recently after his 9-year-old daughter was diagnosed by a UCLA
specialist with a hormone disorder. She was prescribed a series of injections of a specialty drug called Lupron Depot. As far back as 1993, researchers deemed the drug "safe and efficacious." Krival
said he and his wife booked an appointment for their daughter at Ronald
Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Before the scheduled visit, they received a
written estimate from the hospital that their copay would be $500 for
the first shot."That's
a lot," Krival told me. "We understood that this drug must be
expensive, but at least we knew how much we'd have to pay." They
were told again that the copay would be $500 when they arrived for the
appointment. The shot was administered by a nurse. It was all over in a
few minutes. The bill arrived this month. Krival's copay wasn't $500. It was $3,908.71... So what does UCLA have to say about Krival's experience? Amy
Albin, a spokeswoman for UCLA Health Sciences, said the medical center
got its wires crossed and mistakenly said the copay would be $500 when
it was the deductible that was $500. She said the problem
involved the way UCLA contacted Krival's insurer. "The error in our
insurance verification process has been corrected," Albin said. She
declined to comment on whether other patients have been affected by
similar screw-ups. But it's not hard to imagine that others were misled
but didn't question their bills...
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