I am writing this to share my worst experience with Aster Medicity.....
My son had adenoid surgery this month at Aster and after consulting with few doctors from different hospitals, we decided to go with Aster because of its fame.
I enquired about the cost in multiple hospitals and learned that it would be around 70k to 1 lakh. Aster also gave me an estimation like around 1 lakh. Since, I have corporate medical insurance I didn’t see any problem with that and I thought it would be covered except co-pay and some non medical expenses.
Also, I heard from one of my colleagues that his kid had the same issue and went for surgery. His most of the bill amount got covered through our corporate insurance.
Finally, I received final bill of rs 92k for which I got approval for 49k and I was in need to pay the balance amount of rs. 40k.
I wondered because doctor suggested this as a surgery which takes almost 30 mins and the patient can leave the hospital in the same day, but since I am insured they admitted my son for 2 days and used costly items (as they are claiming, but I am not sure) and put it under consumables in the bill.
I questioned about this bill, their insurance manager claimed that corbitor is separate which costs rs 30k and that is the reason I didn’t get coverage for the equipments used. She also mentioned this separation of amount should have been intimated to me by the finance dept when they were explaining about the estimated amount of surgery. I said I didn’t get any communication but she said she got the email from finance dept with the details explained to me including the separation of cost. When it asked to the finance team executive, she talked without head or tail.
I also accept my mistake that I didn’t ask each cost details and if I did, I would have changed the hospital for sure. I understand that it’s ultimately insurance company’s decision what to cover and what not but if the hospital would have intimated me with the cost seperation including with this additional equipment charge, I can confirm with my insurance desk whether this will be covered or not.
Insurance team offered me rs 2500 discount, but I didn’t say anything to them because I thought why should I accept it as I felt I am a victim of big SCAM....
Finally, now they asked me to pay rs 42k (39900 - balance amount to pay as per insurance company approval letter plus 2336 - excess package). I called many times and spoke to people from different departments but none of them know what is excess package.
Just before, I spoke to insurance department and billing department and I said Clearly that I can pay only the balance amount which is showing in the insurance company’s approval letter and I will not pay rest of the amount. They said they already sent for approval for this excess charge of 2.5k but my insurance company rejected it and as a customer, I need to pay it. We had a quarrel with each other and they showed how experienced they are in these situations. I told them WHY SHOULD I AM LIABLE TO PAY FOR THESE UNNECESSARY CHARGES ADDED TO THE BILL.
ALSO, THE EXECUTIVES TO WHOM I SPOKE FROM THE INSURANCE AND BILLING DEPARTMENT ASKED ME TO MOVE LEGALLY.......
YES, I DECIDED TO MOVE LEGALLY AGAINST THIS MONEY LAUNDERING PEOPLE AND SCAMMERS...
I know this is not a secret that Aster is a money laundering hospital but again people go there with hope and they are exploiting it without conscience....Be alert guys...