Logo you’ll see on letter Heywood Hospital says to disregard.
Heywood Hospital of Gardner MA Responds to the Phoenix Problem – Ignore the Letter
Concerned about patients – Heywood took immediate and decisive action.
It didn’t take long for Social Media Internet to be loaded with comments after many area residents received letters from Phoenix Financial Services, a collection agency claiming to have purchased debt people originally owed to Heywood Hospital. The problem as many Social Media users pointed out, the debts never existed, are already paid, or are inaccurate. We reached out to Heywood Hospital about the issue. They have advised people to simply ignore the letters. We reached out to Phoenix and they would not talk to us unless we gave them a birth date and when we objected to giving out personal information, a Phoenix spokesmen abruptly hung up.
Considerable Complaints about Phoenix
According to an article on Money.com published in 2020, Phoenix has a large number of complaints about it. Their article gives advice on getting Phoenix removed from your credit report. Article, CLICK HERE. The Better Business Bureau of Indianapolis has more than a dozen pages of consumer complaints about inaccurate credit reporting and other issues from Phoenix, CLICK HERE.
Heywood Hospital Responds
Heywood Hospital was quick to respond to the issue and is very concerned about its patients. Dawn Casavant, Vice President of External Affairs very graciously agreed to an interview with Gardner Magazine. Listen here on any device. CLICK PLAY.
Heywood Explains Procedures and Takes Immediate Action
Heywood Hospital issued a Complete Press Release, CLICK HERE, in which it stated, “We are aware that patients have been receiving collection notices sent in error, from the Phoenix Financial Group. We apologize for the confusion and any inconvenience this may have caused you. These notices may be disregarded. Heywood made the decision to sell some old receivables (visits prior to 2/2021) to a company called Pendrick. This is a common practice in the healthcare industry and Pendrick is a reputable firm. Pendrick utilized a collections agency, Phoenix Financials, who began aggressive collections tactics. This is inconsistent with the intent of the sale, and we asked them yesterday to cease all patient collections efforts on these receivables. You may be contacted by this company if you had an insurance or patient balance in our system from 2/1/21 and prior. We have asked Phoenix/Pendrick to stop all collections efforts and will no longer be doing business with these organizations. What are the next steps/what do I do? If you have been contacted by Phoenix Financial, please disregard the notice. As we are discontinuing work with them, we have also asked them to send a notice that all collections efforts will cease. Will this collection attempt affect my credit? We have received confirmation that no one’s credit will be impacted.
Please listen to the AUDIO interview with Dawn Casavant. In it, she also tells us of Heywood’s commitment to improving Surgical Options as the new Surgical Pavilion continues construction with a projected opening in 2024.