Timmy Hartnett broke his leg on his fourth birthday, May 3.
“We were getting ready for his party,” said his mother, Jennifer Hartnett. “He was running around and slipped on the kitchen floor and broke his femur.”
Timmy required surgery and a three-day stay at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield. Both legs were in a cast up to his waist for six weeks. He had a single-leg cast for another three.
“It was not fun,” his mother said.
Adding to the Winfield family’s stress was a blizzard of bills that arrived in the mail throughout the summer. Jennifer Hartnett said she diligently paid the family’s portion each time a bill came in.
On July 11, she sent Central DuPage Hospital a check for $327.86, which the hospital cashed four days later.
Hartnett didn’t realize she had already paid that bill when she saw another copy of the charge in August. So on Aug. 19, she sent a second check for $327.86. The hospital cashed that check the very next day.
It wasn’t until Hartnett was going through the bills, weeks later, that she realized her mistake. On Sept. 24, she called the hospital, but a customer service agent told her there was no record of the second payment, Hartnett said.
She promptly emailed copies of both canceled checks and waited to hear.
When the hospital hadn’t called back by early October, Hartnett began calling again.
Hartnett said she called Oct. 7, 10, 21, 24 and Nov. 21. Each time, she was told someone was looking into her situation.
During the last call, she was assured she would receive a refund for the second $327.86 payment within 10 business days, she said.
Three weeks passed and Hartnett heard nothing. So she emailed What’s Your Problem?
She said Timmy was later diagnosed with brittle bone disease, which explained why his leg fractured so easily.
Needless to say, it was a stressful summer.
Battling the hospital for the refund only added to her anxiety, she said.
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“I think they don’t know where the money has gone so they’re not refunding mine until they can find it,” Hartnett said. “But that’s not my issue.”
She said Central DuPage Hospital should pay her back, then find the money in its system.
The Problem Solver called Christopher King, a spokesman for the hospital. King said he was limited in what he could say about the Hartnett’s situation because of privacy laws, but he promised to look into the matter.
Hours after the Problem Solver contacted King, a representative from Central DuPage Hospital called Hartnett to say it found the missing payment.
“He said there was a breakdown in the process,” Hartnett said. “When they got my (second) payment, since I already had a zero balance, they put it in an ‘unapplied’ account. For some reason, they didn’t find it there when they looked, if they even looked.”
Hartnett said the hospital representative promised to put the $327.86 into the family’s hospital account, which will be used to pay off other bills related to Timmy’s care.
Also, the hospital offered to pay for the family’s portion of Timmy’s November physical therapy bill, which amounted to $25.85.
“It’s better than nothing,” Hartnett said. “It’s good that I won’t be getting bills for the $327. It’s been so frustrating though.”
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