After Novant billing mistake, a collection agency began targeting this NC woman

A first-of-its-kind state initiative is expected to help people with big hospital bills they can’t pay and to reduce the risk that more North Carolinians face the same plight.

In exchange, this state’s 99 hospitals will receive billions more in federal Medicaid money.

For many North Carolinians, the damage is already done. Among them is Dara Yang, who had health insurance when she was rushed to a Novant hospital. But a billing mistake meant that debt collectors were soon pursuing her anyway.

During a spring night in 2022, Dara Yang woke up struggling to breathe.

She was taken by ambulance to Novant’s hospital in Huntersville, where doctors performed blood tests and imaging scans but could not determine what went wrong. She was there for about 13 hours.

In June of that year, Novant sent her a bill for $22,000. She then called her insurance company, which said they had not received any claims from Novant. She repeatedly contacted Novant representatives to make sure they were billing insurance, and was told that Novant would do so, she said.

But by November, Novant turned her account over to collections. Paying $22,000 was out of the question. Yang, who runs a small Etsy shop, brings home about $20,000 a year, she said.

The collection agency sent her a letter the following January, threatening to report her account to a credit bureau. She knew that could damage her credit, making it impossible for her to get a car, house or loan.

She said she contacted several lawyers who told her that fighting the matter in court would be too costly. They suggested she ask Novant for a reduced repayment amount, along with an itemized bill. She did that, and Novant reduced her bill to $11,000.

But her insurance company said Novant still had not submitted a bill.

By February 2023, she was fed up. She called Novant and told a representative that she wanted an insurance claim number — or some other proof that the hospital had billed her insurance. The representative told her something that stunned Young: They’d never successfully filed a claim with her insurance company.

The following month, she filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s consumer protection division.

“I am bewildered by the incompetence and lack of empathy from Novant regarding my case,” she wrote. “I believe I have made multiple good faith attempts to resolve this issue and each time it was left unresolved leaving me feeling neglected and deceived.”

In an April 2023 letter responding to Yang’s complaint, Novant said it had filed the insurance claim with the wrong address and, as a result, had missed the insurance company’s six-month deadline for filing the claim. It would write off her bill and notify the collection agency of the error, the letter states.

Yang, now 32, is happy with the care she received from Novant’s doctors and nurses. But the experience with the billing error has left her unsure about whether she’ll ever return to a Novant hospital.

“I feel a little betrayed,” she said.

COMING THURSDAY: What are the expected benefits and possible problems with North Carolina’s ambitious debt-relief plan? Read more of our medical debt coverage here.

Ames Alexander

The Charlotte Observer

Ames Alexander was an Observer investigative reporter for more than 31 years, examining corruption in state prisons, the mistreatment of injured poultry workers and many other subjects. His journalism won dozens of state and national awards. He was a key member of two reporting teams that were named Pulitzer finalists.  Support my work with a digital subscription