Province seeks millions in unpaid medical bills

Health Shared Services B. C. looking for agency that will track down those who owe

Health Shared Services B. C. is looking for an international debt collector to retrieve between $ 8 million and $ 10 million owed to health authorities each year.

“That’s a fairly substantial loss to the health care system,” said Island Health spokeswoman Sarah Plank. Island Health has about $ 1.2 million a year in unpaid in- patient and outpatient bills, she said.

A request for qualifications for a debt- collection agency was posted online on behalf of Health Shared Services B. C., a division of the Provincial Health Services Authority. The debt collection is needed for accounts receivable for all six of the province’s health authorities. The request closed Feb. 13.

The Provincial Health Services Authority would not comment on the closed bid, citing confidentiality.

In- patient accounts include charges for hospital rooms, residential care, preferred rooms, medical supplies, emergency fees and diagnostics, and are generally larger bills than outpatient accounts.

The charges on outpatient bills tend to be related to medical supplies, emergency fees and diagnostics.

The request notes the average combined debt owed to health authorities in B. C. is more than $ 8 million a year.

About 53 per cent of the patients owing money are from North and Central America. About 18 per cent are from Asia, 12 per cent from Europe, and 16 per cent from unknown or other parts of the world.

The average dollar value of accounts submitted for debt recovery is between $ 300 and $ 3,300, the request says.

A patient’s failure to respond to two to three invoices and a followup call or letter typically results in the account being placed with a collection agency within 90 to 120 days after a patient is discharged, the request says.

Lyn Scanlan received a $ 95,478 bill from ARO Inc. collection services just two weeks after her husband, Eric, died of cancer.

Scanlan — who lives in an RV she estimates to be worth $ 92,000, owns a 2011 Jeep valued at about $ 32,000 and relies on her Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan to get by — said she can’t pay the outstanding bill.

“The RV, they can’t take this away from me. It’s my living quarters.”

The bill stemmed from an emergency room visit that turned into a three- week stay at Royal Jubilee Hospital in 2011, and was originally for $ 126,000.

Eric, a British citizen, had been denied residency and in turn health coverage because he was ill.

He returned to Britain for care, but after eight months, doctors could do no more for him.

The Scanlans headed back to their Saanichton trailer, where he planned to die.

The couple anticipated they could pay for medication, but did not foresee the amount of health care services needed, and further charges were incurred. Eric died Jan. 28. The bill, addressed to Eric William Scanlan and received Feb. 11, appears to have been reduced, Lyn Scanlan said, but it’s still too much.

“I have nothing to fall back on financially.”