Private providers can bill insurance companies for the administration of the shooting, and those without insurance are covered by the government.
Chicago health officials want to clarify after a Chicago clinic learned the hard way.
Chicago Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said his inspectors are examining the city’s emergency care centers to determine if vaccine patients you being charged, in violation of program regulations.
“I want the people of Chicago to hear that they should not be billed directly for receiving a COVID vaccine …,” Arwady said.
Jamie Gentry said she was shocked and really disappointed when she unexpectedly found out she would have to pay nearly $ 200 to get the vaccine at Michigan Avenue Immediate Care in Chicago.
Gentry said she is eligible for a vaccine as an essential worker, volunteering regularly at a food pantry.
She booked a vaccine through ZocDoc, the Chicago website uses it to help people track down the providers who signed up to provide them.
Gentry said it took 16 hours to find one. When he accidentally booked two appointments and had to call the clinic to cancel, he said he was told the facility was outside his insurance network and would have to pay a doctor’s consultation fee of nearly $ 200. .
“I went into the programming and assumed that the vaccine would be free and at most I thought I would have to pay an administrative fee of $ 15 or $ 20. So I was, I was really shocked and really disappointed.” said Gentry.
Dr. Jim Runke, co-medical director of Michigan Avenue Immediate Care, said it was a huge oversight.
He told Team I that he did not know that taxes could not be levied on consumers who did not have insurance or a network – and said they would reimburse the 20 patients they had collected from 1,500 vaccinated in the last month.
“So yeah, that absolutely fell through the cracks,” Runke said. “This was entirely our fault … I have been doing this for 30 years now, insurance billing is extremely complicated and confusing. It’s always kind of the last part of the puzzle piece that we discover and hear about again. He raises his ugly head in the middle of this when we are just focused on patient safety, focused on the safety of our staff and things like that, so there are no excuses. “
Arwady pointed out that the health department does not regulate these facilities, but that the city makes decisions about who gets the vaccine to be given. She said her department is reviewing these complaints and is in talks with suppliers.
“It’s mostly about urgent care, which tends to be more than a service charge, and then people reimburse the insurance, so we do these groups together and we just want to make sure that what people do is appropriate in what they do. look at what I do is allowed, “Arwady said.
Jamie Gentry said he received an apology and explanation from Dr. Jim Runke at the Michigan Avenue Clinic who erroneously charged him nearly $ 200.
Runke and public health officials agree that vaccine patients can be legitimately charged for additional services provided at the time of a stroke – including medical treatment and consultations on other diseases.
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