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Area Man Recovering From $44 Million Hospital Bill
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 16, 2012
Modified Jan 16, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 16, 2012
Modified Jan 16, 2012
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Last year unemployed Bronx doorman Alexis Rodriguez was hospitalized with pneumonia for three weeks at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital. And last week he received the bill: $44,776,587 for outpatient services. But hey, they saved his life—can you really put a price on that? "I almost had an asthma attack," Rodriguez, 28, tells the Daily News. Careful, man; Bronx-Lebanon charges $10 million for inhalers.
It turns out that Rodriguez owes $44,776,287 less than what the invoice said; it was merely a clerical error by the hospital's billing company, which put the invoice number into the “amount due” field by mistake. The company, PHY Services, made the mistake on multiple invoices to various people, and they've now been deluged with complaints.
Mistakes happen, but Rodriguez, who actually owes a mere $300, doesn't seem to be placated. "I think they should have somebody look over the bills before they send them out," he tells the News. "I understand manpower may be down, but to send out a lot of bills with numbers that big — someone could have had a heart attack." The far-reaching repercussions of this billing whoopsie are incalculable—personal injury lawyers, for instance, are probably hyperventilating right now trying to track down everyone who had heart palpitations or threw their backs out after getting this invoice.
Tagged
bronx lebanon hospital
hospital bills
news of the weird
the bronx
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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