PHOENIX — When it comes to miracles in Donna Lewis’ life, a liver transplant through the Mayo Clinic in 2019 counts as two.
“If I didn’t have it, I would not be here today,” Donna Lewis said.
“It wasn’t until after she had the transplant and they came back with the pathology report from the diseased liver and they found cancer on the liver,” Donna Lewis's husband, Robert Lewis said. “And if they found that just like two weeks before… she would never have been on that list and she would have never gotten the transplant.”
In March of 2022, Donna Lewis had another surgery to fix a hernia that developed where the transplant scars come together. It’s something Donna Lewis said doctors considered normal after the transplant.
But what came after the hernia surgery was unexpected.
Robert Lewis found out about the potential bill that could come from Mayo Clinic in August 2023, 17 months after the surgery. Then the $42,000 bill showed up on their October statement.
“I couldn’t even imagine trying to pay the $4,000 a month payment to them until you got done paying $42,000,” Donna Lewis said. “That’s like a car, you know, that I’m not going to drive.”
“UnitedHealthcare told us that it was because Mayo had billed it as weight loss surgery,” Robert Lewis said. “And it’s like, well, how can that be? This was not weight loss surgery. This was clearly something else.”
While running his own business, Robert Lewis has taken time over the past few months to call both Mayo Clinic and UnitedHealthcare about the bill, saying he’s gotten differing stories.
A few weeks ago, Robert Lewis said Mayo Clinic billing couldn’t hold the bill any longer.
“Now we’d like you to start paying,” Robert Lewis recalls. “And I was like, ‘This can’t be.’”
Robert Lewis emailed into 12News about the bill. One week ago, 12News started contacting both Mayo Clinic and UnitedHealthcare about the Lewis’ bill.
Robert Lewis also continued to ask and found out it was now a diagnosis code on the bill causing issues.
“We’re eight codes down the list here,” Robert Lewis said. “That’s what they’re keying in on because this particular code is for anorexia. Think again - nothing about weight loss surgery, it’s anorexia now all of the sudden. And it’s like she’s never had anorexia, she’s never been treated for, sought treatment for, been diagnosed for, but it’s that code right there.”
Robert Lewis asked Mayo Clinic’s billing department to go back to the doctors about the code, "R630".
“They’re like, ‘Yeah, we don’t do that. We don’t bother our doctors. Their job is to treat patients' - and I get that,” Robert Lewis said. “But when you’re willing to strap us with a $42,000 bill over a number that just shows up on a bill that shouldn’t be there probably, and you’re willing to let us pay it - that’s a problem for me.”
Robert Lewis also contacted Donna Lewis's surgeon through the patient portal about the code. A written response back from the surgeon’s nurse shows that there was nothing about anorexia in Donna’s file.
“Anybody that’s dealt with medical billing probably knows it’s a broken process,” Robert Lewis said. “It just doesn’t work very well and these things happen.”
Mayo Clinic told 12News earlier this week that the bill was under review.
UnitedHealthcare told us they’ve been working with Mayo Clinic on the claim and are reprocessing it under Donna Lewis's benefit plan.
“We are sorry for any confusion this may have caused as we looked to ensure that her hospital claims were paid appropriately,” a UnitedHealthcare spokesperson told 12News in part of a statement.
Thursday morning, Robert got a call from UnitedHealthcare saying the bill was paid.
“Literally in the last week or so is when all the movements came like in a hurry,” Robert said. “UnitedHealthcare wasn’t even really able to tell me what it was that (Mayo Clinic) changed on the bill, they just could tell me that it was an adjusted bill - that was it.”
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