Administered without anesthetic, the 300 to 400 bills that went out last week from American Fork Hospital's emergency room physicians' billing service hurt a lot - right up until the apology letters caught up with them.
A computer programming error coupled with an employee mistake at SysteMedics billing service in Salt Lake City put a whole bunch of accounts into the bad debt file.So Utah County residents opening their mail around April 30 found dunners informing them their accounts were delinquent and being collected by Associated Financial Services Inc.
Those not collected within 30 days would show up as black marks on the debtor's credit history, the letters warned.
Questions were to be referred to the office. Associated Financial Services has four offices throughout Utah. Each received a battery of angry phone calls about the bills, most of which did not deserve to be in the bad-debt category.
Joe Solmonsen, company president, said it was an unfortunate experience for all involved, with his collection company bearing the brunt of most people's anger.
He said people are naturally hostile toward collection companies, although his company and others in the state collect "million and millions of dollars each year that go right back to the Utah economy." This didn't help, said Solmonsen.
"We've done billing for many, many years. We try to do things correctly and nicely. You collect money by being nice, not by being mean," said Solmonsen. "We've never had anything like this before.
"It was truly an error on SysteMedics part, a mistake made when someone tried to extract data and sent it to us by tape. There was no intent to hurt anyone. This was an honest mistake."
Solmonsen said a letter of apology came to him from SysteMedics and letters of explanation and apology have followed all of the billing notices.
His employees have been instructed to be helpful and extra courteous to people calling about the American Fork Hospital bills.
SysteMedics President Linda Key said additional precautionary measures have been put in place to make certain such mistakes do not recur. Solmonsen said his company is also adding checks that will help prevent another blitz of such mailings errors.