Emergency Department UVA Health Haymarket Medical Center

Billing practices here are outrageous even by current hospital/ER standards. If you're cash based or sharing-ministry based, avoid at all costs.



We live a stone's throw from this facility in Haymarket, and yet we now drive a good 30 minutes to the Inova facilities in Fairfax instead. We learned over the past year to not use this Novant facility unless it is a life or death situation in which case driving further distances isn't worth the risk.



Our children (4 of them) are young and we've had a number of issues over the past year including a couple of emergency room visits.



Specifically, the billing problems have been:



- Cost of services is considerably higher. We recently had an incident that started at this Novant facility and then was transferred to Inova, so we have a clear comparison of bills for visits, ER doctors, etc. having been at both facilities during the same incident. Novant's set of bills was twice as much as Inova Fairfax and Inova had probably three times as much work on their side. The Inova stay was overnight while the Novant one was a quick 1 hour triage. And the Novant bill was higher over all then the ones from Inova!



- Bills are never itemized even when sent in the mail. You get a letter saying "you owe this, pay now" without the slightest explanation what it's for. We have to drive over to the facility and have them print out an itemized list of what is covered and what isn't and any discounts (cash pay) that were included. It's a constant theme with Novant. Get bill, call them and ask what it's for, have to drive over, rinse and repeat. Inova and others do not have this problem - itemized bills are sent out by default.



- Bills are not handed out at the facility. When leaving, they say "we'll send it later" which is not uncommon but always annoying.



- Discounts for cash-pay are often not added until after you call and haggle. Why that may seem normal, it isn't. Most facilities that know you are cash-pay add cash-pay discounts directly into the bill. Don't get me started on why this is even necessary - insurance coverage has lower buy rates than someone like me who is paying directly??



It's been a rough year with medical issues for our family, so we've had an upfront close view of things when it comes to how much Drs and trips cost. Novant needs to do a lot of work on their admin side.

Went into the non busy ER at 2pm w my 5yo son who was having an asthma attack. I gave the staff the rundown on the meds provided at home and his health history. He had an Xray and was diagnosed w pneumonia and a double ear infection.

He was Never given oxygen in the ER despite being short of breath w SAO2 in the mid 80's (normal is 94 or higher). He was only treated w Albuterol TWICE while in the hospital. We were there FROM 2PM-2AM. His condition deteriorated and by 2AM he was on a non- rebreather on the L&D floor (they do not have a" pediatric" floor), at which point I demanded he be transferred out.



The INOVA ambulance team that showed up(and saved his life) immediately put him on CONTINUOUS Albuterol therapy and OXYGEN~ which I had been begging for, for hours (and he stayed on this continuously for 2 days because his asthma was allowed to go without proper treatment)!



He was admitted to the INOVA Childrens Hospital PICU!!! And stayed there for 2 days (Haymarket had him on their L&D floor with NO pediatric DOC in house!! While on L&D a Neonatologist sat and WATCHED his monitors from the nurses station and did NOTHING as he cont. to struggle to breath)!!! I had to demand he be put on oxygen also!



Haymarket Docs, RT, and nurses had no idea how to treat an Asthma pt OR a pediatric pt. They couldn't even find a pediatric nasal cannula or oxygen mask when they finally decided to use one!!! Staff even admitted to not being set up for pediatrics! In addition, he was never given a pillow, blanket or asked if he was hungry in the ER. He was in the ER from 2pm until 11pm (AND never given oxygen while struggling to breath)!! Yes, this is all documented and I have a copy of the chart.



Unqualified staff AND no personal touch. No one was ever rude or nasty, but this was an emergent situation that an ER should have been able to treat. He ended up on a PICU because they refused to give him Albuterol and oxygen which he got from INOVA Childrens Hospital immediately and was then transported via ambulance. INOVA also stated there was NO EAR INFECTION or PNEUMONIA!



I am a recovery room nurse and have never seen the likes of such poor patient care; not to mention a hospital FULL of unqualified staff. This may be a new facility, but there is NO excuse for this!