Salt Lake Regional Hospital Comedy of errors

Our insurance changed starting the new year so we called our insurance company (HSA Healthplan - "A Health Insurance Company under the WISE network) and we were told to schedule the mammogram at Salt Lake Regional Hospital. There are some communication issues within Salt Lake Regional, they are on two different computer systems and they don't or can't read each other's notes and our appointment kept getting canceled. We had to keep calling them back on multiple occasions and it was to say the least a comedy of errors that was not in the least bit funny.

We called Salt Lake Regional and made the appointment1. I called my insurance company (HSA healthplan) “A health insurance company” to pre-verify where I should make the mammogram appointment for my wife since our insurance had changed from Select Health to HAS Healthplan and they told me to call Salt Lake Regional since they are in the WISE network. 2. I called SL Regional and told them our insurance had changed and for that reason we needed to make a new mammogram appointment because he had to cancel an appointment at LDS Hospital because they were not in the WISE network. They did ask me for our Doctors Name which I gave them but we are also having to change doctors since he is not in our network either. They also asked me for the card number which I gave them as well as the verification phone number of 844 234 4472 3. Salt Lake Regional gave us the appointment of January 17th at 4PM and then the next day they just called and left me a message telling me my wife’s appointment was canceled. I made more calls calling my insurance company to verify that SL Regional is in network again and I called scheduling and spoke with two people and got it all straightened out. Each call was around 15 min long.4. I then got another call the next day canceling the appointment again and then I made 4 more calls talking to Rachel and Melanie with my insurance company and I spoke with Shylo at Salt Lake Regional and I got it all worked out again. It appears that there are 2 different systems within Salt Lake Regional hospital and they don’t read each other’s notes. It appears they were looking at our old insurance information that was in their system and not the new information that I had given them. It appears someone should look at their procedures to see if something can be done to prevent this from happening again. If I am the only patient that has had issues then I could just be a complainer although if others are having the same issues I would hope that administration could take a close look at their processes. 5. I then got a call today 1/11/17 to reschedule because Debbie at 801 617 1919 said we were out of network and I then called my insurance company back, I called Shylo back to confirm that we are in Network. I asked her what type of operation they are running at Salt Lake Regional because it is not a professional operation . Should it take 14 calls to schedule a mammogram? My insurance company said we could go to the University of Utah since they are also in network but I would prefer going to SL Regional since it is closer but if this appointment gets canceled again we will change the mammogram to the U of U assuming that Salt Lake Regional does not want us to come there for services. That is how this appears. It is very frustrating, they used the excuse that they saw my wife in the system with Select Health and they looked up the insurance and found it was not in network. They obviously did not look at the notes that included the new insurance company and that was the whole reason we called in the first place otherwise we would have stayed at LDS Hospital. 6. I write restaurant reviews and if I were to write a review for Salt Lake Regional you would get one star and that is because finally Shylo took ownership of the issue and assured me it was all taken care of. She personally walked to each of the desks in the office to explain because emails and notes may either not be read or understood. 7. SUGGESTED TRAINING: I would suggest that some training be done with Salt Lake Regional personnel to read the notes from the prior calls, call the insurance company verification phone number before canceling an appointment and to call the patient when there is a concern before sending them a message that their appointment has been canceled. This would be a valuable training since it appears that they have two separate systems and two departments involved and they may not have access to each other’s information. They obviously don't communicate with each other. 8. Many of the people at my wife's work do not speak English well and if it is this hard to make an appointment to see a doctor or any other appointment at SL Regional it may be best to tell her friends not to go there because of how many issues we have had and if there is a language issue it would be worse. She is disappointed in the lack of professionalism with Salt Lake Regional. I pride myself on being a calm person but after 14 calls just to get an appointment I am frustrated.9. We even faxed a copy of our insurance card to the Hospital. I would think that one phone call should be all that is needed to verify insurance. The mistakes were made by people that assumed things, they assumed we were covered by the insurance information in the computer system, they assumed that our doctor listed is in the same network as us but that is not correct and we have an appointment to change doctors as well. We told SL Regional that our doctor was not in our network and they said that’s ok we just need a name to put on the chart.

So we will wait to see if they cancel this appointment for the fourth time, there are still a few days before the appointment. I was assured that this is not the normal course of business at Salt Lake Regional Hospital and that this is not the NORM. I certainly hope it's not because it does not appear to be a very organized operation. If information like this gets confused with an appointment I would hate to imagine problems that can occur if the organization of their staff, hospital facility and patient records are handled the same way.