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Wisconsin's largest newspaper, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a huge article on dozens of complaints it has received from patients & customers who have had issues with health provider Ascension. They describe being stuck in some kind of limbo where action is not being taken by responsible parties and are receiving bills regularly for procedures they claim are covered by insurance. This comes 3 weeks following a cyberattack on the group that operates in 19 US states with 140 hospitals, 160000+ associates & 36000+ affiliated providers.

My own experience going to an Ascension ER in Birmingham, AL. in 2018-'19. I found that when my disposition was qualified as "self pay" (no insurance or stated source of income) I did not receive adequate medical treatment and was told no injuries appeared in X-Rays and CT that show I had broken my skull (an injury I almost died from - see images in video). Furthermore, you can hear in recorded phone calls in my other videos the lengths other professional doctors will go to support this fallacy. Millionaires who went to college for 10 years to do their jobs risked their professional reputations versus correcting mistakes.

I encountered far larger issues of medical fraud and corruption in my dealings with medical staff and facilities around the Birmingham, Alabama area in recent years. I believe much of the fortunes and millions / billions of dollars in profit enjoyed by Ascension and their associates are underpinned by a mountain of wrongfully treated patients who suffered at the hands of this medical provider's care. I almost did not survive multiple misdiagnoses I encountered going into their ER and attempts to have Ascension account and correct it errors were met with denials and excuses as to their responsibility. I highlight many of these, even recording phone exchanges in other videos on my Youtube Channel.

I replay My October. 13th, 2021 phone call to Ascension CEO Joseph Impicciche who's hospital oversight network includes Ascension Saint Vincent’s East Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.

Between 2018-2019 I was an emergency department patient at Ascension St. Vincent’s East Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. I believe I had broken my neck. I had an X-Ray, 2 CT scans and later an MRI looked at by Ascension Vincent's doctors, each time they told me I had no injuries in this area. I knew their diagnosis was in error as my condition worsened. The area became infected and infested with parasites by summer 2019. I almost died. I obtained my medical records from their hospital along with the X-Ray / CT / MRI imagery and discovered the truth of my injury. I had broken bone in the underside of my skull in the area of the condylar canal and occipital condyle (possibly my foramen magnum was also fractured). How the doctors could have missed such a large and serious injury over multiple hospital visits is inexcusable.
#ascension #emtala #patientdumping #phantombilling #birminghamradiologicalgroup
Transcript
00:00All right, as always, you can go to YouTube channel My Medical Nightmare and see 40 plus
00:07hours video on everything that happened to me.
00:10All right, another huge article out of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the largest newspaper
00:18in the American state of Wisconsin.
00:20Three weeks after a devastating cyber attack hit the computer systems of major U.S. health
00:29provider Ascension, 19 states, 140 hospitals, 160,000 associates, 36,000 affiliated providers.
00:39Now, an interesting thing has happened in the public discourse following this cyber attack.
00:45As you can see, in over 60 to 60 hours of video documentation, recorded phone calls, uploaded
00:54medical records, and correspondence between Ascension, its affiliates, its partners, et
01:02cetera, on this YouTube channel.
01:05Ascension is a bad business.
01:08They're rife with corruption.
01:09They're responsible for damage to countless numbers of people.
01:13Many mainstream media outlets have been besieged with customer and patient complaints involving
01:23Ascension.
01:24And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on June 3rd, 2024, has brought these matters to the fore.
01:33Headline reads, no one else seemed to care.
01:36Patients reach out to public investigators about medical billing issues with Ascension insurers.
01:43They describe here patient customer testimonials.
01:47One claims Ascension attempted to bill them for an annual wellness visit.
01:53The charges were covered under their Medicare health plan.
01:58Patients attempted to call Ascension.
02:01After five months, the patients reached out to the newspaper.
02:05The newspaper brought the issue to Ascension.
02:08And four days later, one customer, patient, got a phone call that the bill was dropped.
02:16I had a similar experience.
02:18When dealing with Ascension and their attendants and partners, if they think you are uninsured
02:24and don't have a way to pay, they will continue to argue and send bills through the mail, I believe
02:32under the assumption that they think that you're weak and can't defend yourself.
02:35What I've shown in past videos is when the patients and customers that have a problem go to organizations
02:43such as the insurance companies or Veterans Affairs, et cetera, and get them involved, all
02:51of a sudden, they'll get a phone call or letter stating that the issue or bill has gone away.
02:58So this highlights a very important fact.
03:01The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claims they've received dozens of emails and calls for patients
03:08and customers who have had billing and service issues with Ascension.
03:12Another patient here mentions how Ascension makes obligations to return phone calls on business
03:21issues or be sent a written letter in the mail and they never call back.
03:27This is my experience as well.
03:29And what's obvious about this is that Ascension's customer service is not professional.
03:37What you can hear in my videos is there's two basic levels that people will deal with in
03:43these medical outfits where I'm located around Birmingham, Alabama.
03:48The front end, receptionist, front desk, et cetera, is like dealing with people out of the inner
03:57city ghettos, all right?
03:59When you go up a level to the lower management, it's like one of those old Western movies where
04:07the guy walks into a saloon and there are all the outlaws gathered playing poker in the corner
04:14of the room.
04:15You've reached the Ascension System Office General Mailbox.
04:18After the tone, leave a detailed message and someone will respond to your call.
04:23I'm trying to reach CEO Joseph Impechike, and he can contact me at that number, and I have
04:32a message that I would like to give to Ascension.
04:36Between 2018 and 2019, I was an emergency department patient at Ascension St. Vincent's East Hospital
04:43in Birmingham, Alabama.
04:44I believe I had broken my neck, I had an x-ray, two CT scans, and later an MRI looked at by
04:52Ascension St. Vincent's doctors.
04:55Each time they had told me I had no injuries in this area, I knew their diagnosis was an
05:01error as my condition worsened.
05:03The area became infected and infested with parasites by summer of 2019.
05:09I almost died.
05:09I obtained my medical records from your hospital along with the x-ray, CT, MRI imagery, and
05:15discovered the truth of my injury.
05:17I had broken bone in the underside of my skull in the area of the condylar canal and occipital
05:22condyle.
05:23How the doctors could admit such a large and serious injury over multiple hospital visits
05:28is inexcusable.
05:29I believe some element of organized corruption may exist in this hospital.
05:34I have compiled over 10 hours of video documentation on what happened to me on my YouTube channel.
05:41And the name of the channel is My Medical Nightmare.
05:45I believe I may have been a victim of patient dumping in the course of my seeking treatment,
05:51which is a violation of EMTALA, E-M-T-A-L-A.
05:54When I told medical staff associated with Ascension about my discovery, that I had been misdiagnosed
06:01repeatedly, I was personally attacked and my psychological state was challenged.
06:07And this is reflected in medical records I obtained later.
06:11I could not obtain proper treatment or diagnosis for this injury because doctors and nurses that
06:18I would subsequently have encounters with would only entertain what the erroneous Ascension
06:24ER findings were.
06:26My mother, who was a nurse for 20 years, had the misfortune of working in an Ascension
06:32hospital when I questioned my MRR findings involving St. Vincent's Ambulatory Healthcare
06:38Network, LLC, and Dr. Michael Brandt Ruff, MD, radiologist, in March 2019.
06:45My mother, who was a nurse for 20 years and worked in the Ascension hospital, she was
06:49terminated from her job there around the same time.
06:53And so this phone call, I challenge the misdiagnosis of Ascension St. Vincent's East Hospital,
07:00Birmingham, Alabama, and I challenge the policy of this hospital.
07:05And Mr. Apichike, I think you need to look into this, please.
07:09Please listen to my message, look into what I'm saying, and you're free to contact me.
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