Another Letter to Swedish

I seems to be a day for letters, not just mine, but Younger Son's beautiful letter to Seattle Prep, protesting proposed changes to the Matteo Ricci Program, which he is enrolled in (making him a freshman at Seattle U and also a senior at Prep--he will receive his high school diploma this spring, at the end of his freshman year of college).

Anyway, I need to send a letter to the head of the Swedish Cancer Institute about the practice of the billing office at Swedish of leaving prerecorded phone messages that do not identify the caller as Swedish Medical Center.

Not that he answered my last letter, but here goes:

DATE: April 17, 2008
TO: Albert B. Einstein, M.D., Executive Director, Swedish Cancer Institute
FROM: Jeanne Sather, cancer patient
RE: Practices of your billing department

Dr. Einstein, I am wondering if you are aware that your patient accounts office is calling patients, like myself, and leaving recorded messages that do not identify the caller as being from Swedish Medical Center?

I have received two calls to date, on April 10 and again on April 15.

The prerecorded message asked me to call the "patient accounts billing office," without telling me the name of the hospital or other provider that was calling. The number I was asked to call was 1-866-365-2211, which I have since confirmed is a number belonging to Swedish.

It seems to me that this practice is unethical. It is certainly annoying--how can I be prepared to return the call if I don't know who I am calling?

I have publicized this practice on my blog, and I will be sending a copy of this letter to the Better Business Bureau.

Links to my blog:

Here's a New One: The Blind Billing Call

Another Blind Collections Call

See also, my earlier letter to Dr. Einstein, which he never answered: 15 Phone Calls

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.