Centennial medical center

LESSON LEARNED!nFOR ROUTINE ELECTIVE PROCEDURES SHOP AROUND! ASK YOUR PHYSICIAN FOR A FACILITY LICENSED AS A “FREESTANDING AMBULATORY SURGERY CENTER.” Or you will pay TRIPLE the $$$$ for your out of pocket.nnHere’s my story. I had a routine colonoscopy scheduled, and arrived at a physician office building and checked in at their endoscopy suite at 7:30 a.m. They checked me in WITHOUT running a pre-authorization on my insurance which I thought was very odd. No estimate for my out of pocket, nothing. I had the quick procedure and left the building by 9 a.m.nnUnbeknownst to me, when I checked in at the endoscopy suite, even though I thought I was going to a “surgery center”, instead they were ADMITTING ME TO THE HOSPITAL. Therefore, a few weeks later here comes the bill and WhAM!!! My out of pocket was over $2300 just for Centennial’s fee, separate from the bills for $350 paid to the physician and $650 paid to the anesthesiologist. And it is at least TRIPLE what it would have been had I been admitted at a surgery center, like the one directly across the street called “Centennial Surgery Center” - a facility meant for day procedures which is NOT run as a department of the hospital. The fees charged by Centennial Medical Center for this service is simply highway robbery!nnAll in the middle of a pandemic. When my business has been destroyed and I have no income. Scraping up the funds to make that payment to Centennial hurt a lot. And I will never EVER forget it. I have always told everyone I know that Centennial should be their hospital of choice. Instead now I have this story to tell.nnMoral of the story? ASK IN ADVANCE WHAT AMOUNT YOU’RE PAYING. Even if you “think” you are going to a surgery center, as I did, you may not be!