Advice? CrescentCare "Free" IUD turned into $400. Has anyone experienced this?
EDIT: the CFO of CrescentCare called me and I’m returning the call tomorrow I’m scared🫣😳
I'm 24 y/o and I would love some advice from folks who are more experienced in navigating healthcare systems. And wondering if anyone else has had this experience with the IUD special. I know $375 is small change as far as healthcare costs go, but it is a lot to me, and also it's the principal of the dang thing!!!
After reading this article about free IUD's AND visit fees waived for the month of August, I got an IUD last week. Ahead of time, I read so many different flyers for this clinic to be absolutely sure that it would be free. My two-person household earns $57k a year, which is wellllll below 4x the federal poverty level ($84,600). Now I am told I owe $375 because it was on a sliding scale. Every single thing I read said you must be uninsured and make less than 4x federal poverty level to be eligible for a FREE IUD and NO visit fees. NOTHING about "if you make less than 4x fed poverty level you will be placed on a sliding scale". Free and sliding scale are very different things. This picture attached was posted on IG after my IUD appointment, so I know that missing the "first come, first served" is not the reason I owe $$.
My first visit I waited around for almost 4 hours, and then spoke to a doctor for maybe 3 minutes total, charged $125. Then I had my IUD the next week, $125, and I have a follow-up next week for another $125.
After my first charge (before the second appt to get the IUD), I called the billing department (took four tries on 3 different days to reach them) because an email from them said I owed $125 but the payment portal said my balance was $0. She said it was a mistake and I don't owe anything.
This made me cautious so I asked the front desk before the IUD insertion if I would owe anything and she said no.
I just got off of a long phone call with the billing department. She told me that the IUD device itself was free, but based on their sliding scale, I have to pay a $125 visit fee ANY time I come to CrescentCare (the whole healthcare facility, not just for IUD/sexual health stuff). I told her that was totally different from what I read online. She basically said that the stuff I was reading wasn't accurate and that other people have had this complaint but that it is what it is and I have to pay. She also said the front desk person doesn't know about billing and shouldn't have told me I wouldn't owe anything.
I see on their website 2 documents for sliding scale for ALL medical services. People that fall under 200% FPL and the 201-400% bracket. I'm at ~235% which she kept referencing on the phone as why I owe $125 per visit. These documents relate to ALL of their medical services and don't seem to have anything to do with the IUD program. It seems like they totally ignored what the special program advertised and just slapped me on the traditional sliding scale. https://www.crescentcare.org/sliding-scale/?nocache=1&
She said her manager will call me and I want to continue to push pack. Does anyone have advice? Saying "every single thing I read about this special said it would be FREE if I was eligible and I am eligible but now you're charging me $400" was not working...
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1533644895473812&set=a.376208611217452