GREENSBORO NC:: Porter McNairy passes the sign every day he drives to and comes home from work. The sign outside Bethany Medical Center offers “free” cancer screenings, “I decided why not, what do I have to lose,” said McNairy.
Skin cancer runs in his family so McNairy stopped in a week ago to get a free screening. A doctor noticed a couple spots and suggested a biopsy. McNairy says he asked how much it be and was told around $140. Turns out that was per biopsy, so begrudgingly, McNairy paid $294 and left thinking that was all he owed.
A month or so later he received a bill in the mail from the medical center for $1,011, “I was quite surprised and figured it was a billing mistake,” said McNairy.
He contacted the facility and says a billing agent offered to lower the cost but he would still owe $683.
Frustrated that he was still on the hook for hundreds of dollars McNairy reached out to 2 Wants to Know.
We talked with a representative at Bethany Medical Center who told us they would look into the issue. A day later the facility sent us an email telling us they were working with the patient and were, “working with them to resolve this situation amicably.”
McNairy says before 2 News called he had tried to contact the medical center for days without any luck, “At that point I questioned if they would ever call me back,” said McNairy.
Lechelle Yates with the Better Business Bureau says cases like this can happen, “In the end we have to protect ourselves, I tell customers get it in writing otherwise it is he said she said,”
said Yates.
The good news for McNairy is that two days after we reached out to Bethany Medical Center the facility sent McNairy an email letting him know he is no longer responsible for the additional charges, “I don’t think this would have gotten taken care of if not for 2 News,” said McNairy.
In the end McNairy paid only $294 for the two biopsies and learned a valuable lesson in the meantime, before you have any procedure of office visit with a doctor get the cost up front and in writing.