Metropolitan Anesthesia Network, Llp

"Same issue as others. Also was double charged, disputed and still it still ended up in collections. Truly disturbing how this company is still able to do this, even after multiple complaints."

"I wish I could give zero stars. My son was scheduled to have oral surgery at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee, MN, and they use anesthesiologists from this outside group that bills completely separately from the hospital. I had three separate phone calls with people at their “second-party billing service,” Health Billing Systems, and they all said their policy is that they don’t contact insurance ahead of time to give patients a predetermination of benefits/advance claim review. They would only give me an estimate for what it would cost if we DIDN’T go through insurance (over $4k) because “too many things could change the day-of,” and then said I needed to contact insurance myself to find out what they will cover. (I did that, and Aetna said I should have the provider contact them because they need more information than I can give them.) I googled the actual anesthesia group to call them directly (as opposed to their “billing service”), and saw 30+ 1-star reviews, all about how shady their billing practices are. There is also no website, no email…it’s almost impossible to figure out who actually works for/runs this company. The BBB lists Keith Schafer under “business management” for Metropolitan Anesthesia Network. When I googled Keith Schafer, I found a LinkedIn profile that lists him as “Customer Service/Collections Manager of Health Billing Systems,” the supposed “second-party billing company” that handles Metropolitan Anesthesia Network’s finances. It sounds to me like it’s two “separate companies” run by the same shady person behind the scenes. Now we've gotten two separate paper bills from them for the separate anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist as opposed to one bill from this one company who handles both of these medical professionals. No emails at all like any other normal medical organization, and it sounds from other people's reviews like if you lose the physical bill and haven't paid it yet, you're just screwed and they're sending you to collections, as if maybe that's actually their goal. It is beyond me that there have been so many complaints filed against this company and yet they somehow have an A+ rating with the BBB. This company’s business practices are unethical at best. Doctors and nurses who work for this company (/companies??): this makes you look SO BAD."

"called to make a payment, was hung up on twice, then was told that i could only make a payment in full or they would not accept it. Now my bill has been sent to collections, and when i called them to find out why, I was hung up on by them as well. The medical community doesn't care about us, only our money. sad, that we gave them this power over us, really sad!!!!"

"Just as everyone else has said, worst service I’ve received for any billing. I was notified by collections that I have an outstanding bill from Feb 2022 and April 2023- it’s Sept 2023 and I’m just finding out. I called and stated that I had never received any bill in the mail just to be told they sent four (funny that I received other bills and paid them all). When I initially called I was told my balance was $1.9k just to call again and hear that it had now gone to $3k+. I called my insurance and was informed that I should be paying no more than $600 for both bills combined. Thankfully, Emma from HealthPartners said she would contact them to see what the misunderstanding is. I hadn’t heard anything for 3 days so I called and was notified that she had left two voicemails but was receiving no contact back. When I called the anesthesiologist, Lynn from billing had mentioned she had Emma’s number so why was there no call back done? I’ve never been sent to collections for any bill as I pay them right away nor have I ever had a company contact me about a bill a year and a half later. If possible, stay away."

"Horrible experience! My son had a procedure done in October 2020 - we received our bills right away and paid them. It is now the end of August/Early September and I am just receiving a bill for the anesthesia. However; my information on the bill is not correct - my name or my address. Additionally, the due date on the bill indicates 08/22/2021 and the envelope was post marked 08/23/2021. the bill reads that I had received additional bills and that if this wasn't paid within 15 days it would be sent to collections. Upon receiving this, I contacted them 08/30/2021 in which I was informed that they had sent this to collections 5 days prior and that they had continuously receiving bills returned undeliverable (because I had moved and my name was wrong so it did not get forwarded) so they had to try and dig up an address. When I questioned why a phone call was not made to me (after confirming they had my phone number correct) I was informed that it is not in their procedure and that they are too busy with other clients and phone calls to make outgoing phone calls to inform of outstanding bills. After being informed that because it was sent to collections only 5 days earlier the probably wouldn't report it to the credit bureaus so HOPEFULLY it wouldn't affect my credit - I requested to speak to a supervisor. After waiting on hold for quite some time, I was told the manager wasn't available and that I could leave her a message in which I did and have yet to hear back about the matter. This is just horrible business practices and this company needs to give their customers a chance to pay their bills when they receive before sending them to collections because they did not want to pick up the phone to let me know I have an outstanding bill which to me appears as just plain laziness. This practice has now been reported to the Better Business Bureau and it is not acceptable."