Seeking guidance and clarification
Need some advice regarding Apollo Hospital billing issue
My mother got admitted in Apollo Chennai for Neuro treatment. During the treatment they found another issue near the spleen area and doctors said surgery has to be done immediately.
Before proceeding, we clearly asked the doctors and care coordinators multiple times whether this surgery and treatment would come under the existing approval/credit process. They told us not to worry and said since everything was happening under Neuro care, it was approved and covered.
Based on that only, we agreed for the surgery.
Now during discharge, billing department is suddenly saying the surgery part is not approved and payment has to be made separately. When we told them the doctors themselves confirmed it was approved, billing people literally said “doctors don’t know billing matters.”
Now they are asking us to pay for the entire treatment which is running up to 7 lakhs.
Honestly we are stuck now because:
- Nobody informed us earlier that this could become an issue
- If they had told us beforehand, we could have clarified everything before surgery
- Entire treatment happened with coordination between departments, so naturally we trusted what the doctors and care team said
Just wanted to ask if anyone here has faced something similar with Apollo or any corporate hospital.
What should be my next step here?
Should I escalate this to higher management?
What documents should I collect before discharge?
And legally/hospital-policy-wise, can they suddenly deny it after treatment is completed?
Any advice would really help now.