Man billed $118K through insurance after daughter's chin injury goes untreated at Spring ER

Chaz Miller Image
Saturday, December 9, 2023
$118K billed to man after Spring-area ER fails to treat child's injury
The Cleveland Emergency Hospital in The Woodlands billed a man's insurance $118,620 after his daughter's chin laceration was left untreated.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (KTRK) -- Mark Ricci's daughter injured herself last month, so he took her to Emergency Hospital Systems- The Woodlands in the 26200 block of the North Freeway.

The clinic also operates as Cleveland Emergency Hospital.

"My wife and I realized this wasn't the kind of wound you could just put a bandage on," Ricci said. His daughter suffered a laceration to her chin.

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Ricci said they were ultimately unable to treat her injury, but that didn't stop them from sending his insurance a bill for $118,620.

The documents he showed ABC13 said $80,234.70 came from the clinic, and the remaining $38,385.48 was from the doctor who saw his daughter.

"It was pure shock," he said. "It didn't make any sense - it was just a minor skin laceration."

A representative from the clinic said the total is their "standard markup rate" but added that insurance never actually has to pay that much.

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The clinic said it has settled with Ricci's insurance company for $516, though, as of now, he said his account doesn't reflect that.

He added that he had to take his daughter to a second emergency room to get her chin adequately treated, and following that, his insurance company was billed about $5200 for that visit.

ABC13 asked Emergency Hospital Systems - The Woodlands about the medical element of Ricci's concerns, but they said they couldn't get that information to us until Monday.

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