Go to carilion.com where they have posted the above MUST KNOW info. 

My son just received a Carilion bill for an emergency room visit.  Included in his bill were two separate "flyers", one being for Med Key (should he wish to apply for credit) and another advising that if he called the number given, he could receive a 10% discount for prompt payment.  Where was the slip of paper telling him what he must do for financial consideration (a/k/a Charity Care)???

I went to Carilion's web page, to see if perhaps they provided information clarifying what he needed to do to apply (this was not information given when he was registered at the ER either).  This is where I found Carilion Billing and Collection Facts.

I also found Charity Care Guidelines under Carilion Pricing Facts.  Nowhere does it mention that anyone who has over $30,000 equity automatically disqualifies them from eligibility for Charity Care!  How does Carilion know how much equity a person has???

I've made copies of these official Carilion facts, which I intend on passing out to all of my friends and family. 

• Patients who can’t afford to pay their bill are encouraged to apply for Charity Care.

• In addition to Charity Care, we work with patients to arrange payment plans they can afford. We try to be flexible and understanding. There are many patients who pay as little as $10 per month. If we’ve made such an arrangement and this is all patient can pay, this will satisfy their bill regardless of how large the bill is.

• When patients don’t pay their bills, don’t provide financial information and don’t respond to our attempts to contact them, the collection process ultimately ends up in court. 

• Without any contact or financial information, we are unable to identify patients who are eligible for Charity Care and give consideration to removing them from the collection process.

• Working with people who show up in court and say they can’t afford to pay. When that happens, the court process is suspended and we review the patient’s financial data. If the patient qualifies for Charity Care the bill is canceled.

If a patient does not pay a bill, does not provide financial information and does not respond to our attempts to contact them over a period of time, we will use the TransUnion process to determine if the patient would likely qualify for Charity Care. If so, then the bill will be written off as Charity Care instead of being sent to collections.

The best way for people to quickly and easily qualify for Charity Care is to fill out a timely application and respond to our requests for information. Timely information greatly improves the chances of a successful outcome.

Speaking as both a patient and an employee with inside knowledge and experience regarding Carilion's collection policies I would attest to the fact that none of the above information has been included in Carilion's stated iniatives (goals) to their employee's who work in billing and collections.  Carilion's billing and collection employee's are evaluated on how much they are able to collect.  They are not evaluated, nor are they directed, to advise patients any of the above information, unless the patient asks and aggresively pursues assistance.

It's not Carilion employee's fault, they are doing what they are told to do - what they must do to keep their job.  The above underlined statements are what patients must do. 

For any one who has followed Carilion's policy, and have contacted Carilion regarding their ability to pay, you are on the right track.  However, if you have encountered problems, or are currently encountering problems with the above stated Carilion policies, I would suggest that you take the time to send the Citizens Coalition your story.  I did.  There is strength in unity.  You may be able to easily tear out a few pages in a book, but have you ever tried to tear out all the pages at once? 

On behalf of Carilion employee's, our insights and stories are important.  I hope my story (that I sent to the Coalition) will help in small way to fix this mess.  More important, I hope that a time will come when I can sign my name without fear of being targeted at my job.

Speaking as both a patient and an employee with inside knowledge and experience regarding Carilion's collection policies I would attest to the fact that none of the above information has been included in Carilion's stated iniatives (goals) to their employee's who work in billing and collections.  Carilion's billing and collection employee's are evaluated on how much they are able to collect.  They are not evaluated, nor are they directed, to advise patients any of the above information, unless the patient asks and aggresively pursues assistance.

It's not Carilion employee's fault, they are doing what they are told to do - what they must do to keep their job.  The above underlined statements are what patients must do. 

For any one who has followed Carilion's policy, and have contacted Carilion regarding their ability to pay, you are on the right track.  However, if you have encountered problems, or are currently encountering problems with the above stated Carilion policies, I would suggest that you take the time to send the Citizens Coalition your story.  I did.  There is strength in unity.  You may be able to easily tear out a few pages in a book, but have you ever tried to tear out all the pages at once? 

On behalf of Carilion employee's, our insights and stories are important.  I hope my story (that I sent to the Coalition) will help in small way to fix this mess.  More important, I hope that a time will come when I can sign my name without fear of being targeted at my job.

Thank you!!  The "link" you provided was good info, no GREAT info. 

My question is why is this information so hard for people to find if they don't know how to navigate a computer?  The Charity Care information provided on the web,  is not easily available to anyone unfamiliar with the Web.  The information given in the newspaper left out a lot of important.  Why isn't this information included in the newspaper, offered at Patient Registration, or included with bills?  Learning how to navigate Carilion's public web site is not part of most employee's training, nor is it information easily available to the public at large - including Carilion employee's.