Overland Park Regional Medical Center

I recently had hip replacement surgery at OPR. The surgeon whom I really liked, only performs surgeries there. Based on my insurance and CPT-codes, I received out-of-pocket estimates for radiology, anesthesia, lab work, surgeon fee, etc. However, when it came to the facility charges, I discovered OPR’s truly cynical efforts to obfuscate giving any meaningful pricing information. I had called OPR’s billing department for the hospitals’ facility estimate. I was told to call their Pricing and Estimates Dept. I left eight detailed voicemails with them (the Parallon Group) during a seven-week period. No call was ever returned. Every pricing page on OPR’s website contains some pretty but very empty words. There are tabs for Pay Your Bill-Price Estimates, About Our Pricing Commitment, Contact Us. The more shameless examples: “Call our toll-free number.” (there is none) “Please call us to speak with one of our specialists who will be happy to assist.” (actual text, there was no phone number) “If you would like to obtain an estimate call.” (actual text) From the Welcome to Our Patient Financial Resource Site/ Our Commitment page: “On this site you can learn more about…Contact Information to call us directly for a pricing estimate” (there is no contact information) The ONLY phone number on any of these pages is on the Contact Us section of the Pricing Estimates and Information page, which shows the following: “When you call our Service Center.” (actual sentence) At the bottom of this page is shown: HCA Midwest Administration (Business Office) 5440 W. 110th St #400 Overland Park, KS 66211 Telephone: (816) 508-4000 I drove to this office and called this phone number from the lobby. The office is not open to the public, personnel refused to see me AND it has nothing to do with billing or price estimates. They referred me back to the billing dept black hole! Really, the audacity by OPR to deceive the consumer by actually posting this “information” on their Contact Us page is truly amazing. I did find a Patient Payment Estimator tool on OPR’s website. After entering relevant insurance information, it gives a price estimate for joint replacement surgery but only for Belton Medical Center. Also, since I already had pricing information from each of the other providers for the exact CPT Code for the surgery, I only wanted the out-of-pocket estimate for the OPR facility fee, not any generic and bundled pricing. Moreover, I was only trying to get reliable estimates, not exact pricing. I spoke with representatives of OPR’s Risk Management or Patient Access Dept six times before scheduling surgery and three times even after the surgery was scheduled. They still would ONLY give me the billed amount for the facility fee. The billed amount is irrelevant. With insurance, the only pricing that matters is the contract rate for the CPT-Code. OPR patients are given the Patient Guide booklet. In the Patient Bill of Rights/Payment and Administration section on page 9, it states: (the right) “to receive, upon request, prior to treatment, a reasonable estimate of charges for medical care”. I think this statement is just grossly hollow. OPR has a link for View Our Pricing Transparency CMS Required File of Standard Charges. It lists no charges for any service at all, but instead has a raw data file of 28,004 pieces of medical equipment. How unhelpful that was! Subsequently, I found much information on the 2021 CMS Price Transparency Final Rule. This law requires hospitals (OPR) to publish clear, accessible pricing information of both gross charges and negotiated rates of all services in the hospitals’ Chargemaster, as well as 300 shoppable services they provide, in a consumer-friendly format. These must include 70 specific services required by CMS. Joint replacement surgery is one of the 70 services required by CMS to be clearly published. It would not be surprising to know that OPR is paying the paltry $300 per day (pocket change), fine for refusing to comply with the law. The healthcare consumer has a right to know a legitimate estimate of what their out-of-pocket costs should be for any of OPR’s 300 shoppable services. It seems to me that it’s bad enough that OPR refuses to publish these charges as is required by law. But to cynically post on their website misleading and obfuscating junk, essentially happy-talk in words, is just pathetic. If OPR really cared, they would do the right thing in the first place- publish the pricing information as is required by CMS and the law! So, to be actually helpful to the healthcare consumer, here are my out-of-pocket costs for hip replacement surgery at OPR and with United Health Care insurance: OPR facility: $6,309 Surgeon: $552 CT Scan/Radiology: $187 Anesthesiology: $200 Hospitalist: $41

I spent over two years trying to resolve a bill I kept getting for one of my parents. OPRMC Billing continued to send bills and make collection calls even when I sent them documents showing the maximum Medicare said was owed to them by us. I made numerous calls to them and Medicare. Finally Medicare sent them a letter telling them they were in violation of their Medicare Assignment Agreement and could face sanctions if they continued to bill us. Why am I writing this review after wasting so much of my time already? Because I don't want other people, especially older people on a limited budget to pay more than they owe. This experience was very stressful for me. My parents had me to advocate for them but many older people don't. Please don't be afraid to question the bills and call Medicare for help. In the end Medicare did come through with the letter it took to stop the harassment. I was incredibly frustrated with how long this process took, I even ended up overpaying. It then took months to get that money back. OPRMC didn't volunteer the refund, they had just put the balance to zero. I have to wonder if they would have sent it back on their own?

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Wife was taken through Triage immediately, assigned an exam room, examination started, XRays ordered, then CAT scan. After 5 hours of thorough examinations, two doctors summarized the finding, and found no treatment required, other than pain killers and muscle relaxers. They found a non related on the Xray, and suggest follow up with primary care physician. Nursing staff were very attentive and offered assistance to entire family.

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I was originally referred to Dr. Dang by my primary care provider based upon results from a Cardio Scan, family history, and results from a physical. Dr. Dang's office was responsive in scheduling an initial visit, testing, and followup. Each and every individual I came in contact with is a wonderful communicator and treats me with a great deal of care. I have never felt rushed or unimportant and each time I have been seen in the office I have left with a complete understanding of what I need to do to maintain a healthy heart.

I do not remember the exact date of my visit to the OPR ER, but it was a bad experience and largely a waste of time and a huge waste of my money. I had a blade fall on my nose and it was cut bad enough that I thought I may need stitches and or it would scar bad if I did not go to the ER to have it taken care of. So I went and walked in and sat down in the waiting room in front of the nurses. I was clearly bleeding and my nose looked horrible, but I continued to sit there for at least a half hour before a nurse came to me and asked if I had checked in. I told her no that I was waiting for a nurse to come help me. She then told me that I had to go down the hall to check in to get in line. I was not very happy as there was no sign that I saw that said to go check in and several nurses had walked by me and saw me and no one thought to ask if I had checked in. I can understand they may have thought I already did, but why what to do is not more clear with signs and or nurses don't ask if everyone has checked in who needs help I thought was rather odd. So I went and checked in and they asked me tons of questions. I then had my heart rate taken and a few other things, but I told them all that had happened was that my nose was cut as they could clearly see and I just needed it taken care of. They then sent me back to sit down and wait. I must have waited over an hour. Finally a nurse came to get me and took me back to a room and I asked her how they were going to fix the cut so that it did not scar and she told me that it would scar and there was nothing anyone could do about it. I was at that point very agitated because that was the only reason I went to the ER to make sure it was treated so that it did not. She told me that they would put neosporin (or their brand of it) on it and give me a tetanus shot since I could not remember when I last had one. They then sent me on my way. I asked multiple times how much this would cost as I could not afford a large ER bill and my health insurance would not likely cover the visit. No one could really tell me, but finally one nurse said likely around $500 and after your insurance gets it your share is likely to be $100 - $200. However, a month later when the bill came, it was for $1,200! I was very angry as it was poor service and they did nothing more than give me a $10-$20 shot and a tab of neosporin on my nose! I also had to wait a hour and half just to get help. When I told the nurse I felt bad that I went to the ER since I wasn't in any danger or anything and that they should help others first who may have more of a urgent need she did tell me that it was alright because if more people did not come in for non urgent care that they could not stay open. I now see why after getting a $1,200 bill. Also, when I got home I used google to look up how to prevent scaring and I found directions and used them and I have no scar now. All I did was keep the cut covered with neosporin so it never dried out and once it had healed I started using mederma on it every day for about a month and it healed so well that unless I look really close under high light, I can not even tell there was ever a major cut on my nose. So the ER nurse did not even know what she was talking about that it would scar and that there was nothing I could do to prevent it. I also did not like that the doctor gave me a flyer on plastic surgery to later have the scar fixed when all I had to do was google for how to treat it at home. I would not go back to this ER.

He is very straight forward. You don’t have to dig information’s from him. He is tells you everything. What, when and how is gone be like. You go in really without any worries or concerns. He tells you how long you are gone be in hospital how long it gone be until. It pretty much it happens just like he would.

The nurses assigned to Mom were attentive, kind, and responsive to family concerns. They did a good job caring for Mom. This has not often been my experience in the past with other hospitalizations of my mother. It was so nice to have such a positive experience!

Dr. Samuel worked with us to get Mom in and out of the hospital quickly. The operation went well. Mom was in the hospital for less than a week. The nursing staff was okay for the most part. However, one of the shifts was somewhat lax on getting Mom changed after she had an incident with diarrhea and, after changing her, did not remove the soiled materials from the room. I complained about it, but sensed they were "rolling their eyes at me". With the onset of diarrhea during Mom's stay I was concerned that maybe she had caught something; however, that did not prove to be the case. Quality Control did follow up with me after the visit to see how things went. I reported the one incident I was unhappy about and they said they would look into it. I would use this hospital again.

They performed surgery, and her ankle is on the road to recovery.

It was the worst medical experience I have had. The nursing staff was incredibly inattentive for myself and the people I shared my room with. It was substandard health care, although the supervisors were okay. I had to become an advocate for the elderly patient in the room with me and they responded by moving me to another room with another patient who was not being cared for. I was very unhappy with the experience and I will certainly not be going back. It was as if they had cut everything to the bare bones and they had the lowest paid nursing staff they could have. There was no continuity of care and I would not recommend them.