In November, I sent the below letter to Dr. Richard Liebowitz, president of New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. I had the opportunity to stay in his hospital after I lost consciousness and hit my head at the library in July. I informed him that I would be posting this letter on December 5th in the event that I did not receive a reply. That is today. Enjoy!

Dear Dr. Liebowitz:

I now live every day in fear that I’m going to get another bill for my hospital visit during which I waited three hours for a single 10-minute consultation. The care was lackluster—near the end, I sat for thirty minutes holding a cup of my own urine, because nobody came to take it from me—but the zealousness of the various billing departments from which I have now received four bills totaling $1,500 is certainly commendable.

I am thirty and self-employed, and I am paying these bills out of pocket. I am happy to pay for care I actually received, but these bills do not seem to be associated with any real service. I have spent hours on the phone with various billing departments asking for a simple rundown of for what I am paying, and none could provide me with any reasonable explanations. One billing associate even told me, ”I have no idea what this is for.”

I have paid the fourth of these bills hoping desperately that it is the last. I hope that more than I hope to never faint and hit my head in public again, because lord knows I’m just walking home and refusing all treatment if that happens—I know that I will receive neither a diagnosis nor satisfactory treatment and will then be slammed with hospital bills for what feels like infinity, so I’ll just wait it out alone and hope I don’t die.

It is also important to note that this fourth bill came from the office of [NAME REDACTED], to whom I was referred for a follow-up during my visit. I find it extremely concerning that this physician presumably consulted on my case, although I never met him, and then suggested a follow-up appointment to reread the same chart, provide me with the same opinion, and charge me for a second visit. (I did not schedule a follow-up.)

I am writing this letter to inform you of how patently absurd, upsetting, and irresponsible your hospital and my experience with it have been. I would appreciate it if you would review the bills associated with my visit on July 25, 2018, and inform me as to whether you believe the care I received is of commensurate value to the amount of money that, again, I am paying out of my own savings account. In the case of your lack of response by  December 5, 2018, I will be posting this letter, including the name of the hospital, to my social media accounts and blog.

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Addendum:

I recently had the opportunity to consult the medical record from my visit and noticed several errors. The most glaring of these is that no medications are listed under my history or home medications. I don’t recall anyone asking me about my prescriptions, but if she had, I certainly would have told her that I do, in fact, take a medication regularly.

I find this lack of attention to the detail extremely concerning. Once again, I look forward to your prompt reply regarding this matter.