- Tawnya Scheele faced collections over a duplicate medical billing error.
- Her insurance paid one claim but denied the hospital's duplicate claim.
- CommonSpirit adjusted her balance to $0 after media intervention and insurer update.
SYRACUSE — A Syracuse woman said she's facing collections over a medical billing error stemming from an emergency room visit that's already been paid.
In January 2025, a nasty allergic reaction sent Tawnya Scheele to the ER.
"My eyes had almost swollen shut," she recalled. "Had a hard time breathing."
The hospital was paid for its services. Nine months later, Tawnya Scheele was notified by her insurance company that the hospital wanted to be paid, which is something her insurer was inclined to do.
"They're trying to get me to pay a duplicate bill," Scheele said.
Scheele said the hospital sent two claims to her insurance for her one ER visit. Her insurance paid one claim and denied the duplicate. Yet, the hospital kept trying to collect from her on that denied, duplicate claim.
"They threatened to send me to collections," she said. "I've never not paid a bill. I've never ever have gone to collections."
Scheele said she couldn't get the hospital to see the mistake.
"Doesn't matter how many times I've talked to them," she said. "The insurance company has talked to them. We've done three-way calls and everything. I don't feel like they're listening."
Not wanting to pay nearly $900 for a bill that was already paid, Scheele decided to contact someone who does listen — the KSL Investigators.
"I don't want it to ruin my credit because someone else isn't listening," she said.
We looked over her statements and the multiple explanation of benefits. Dates match, amounts match, codes match. It seems these are duplicates.
So this time we reached out to the public relations department of CommonSpirit, the owner of the Holy Cross Hospital Davis. And we got a different answer.
A spokesperson acknowledged a "discrepancy" and pointed the finger at Scheele's insurance company. Their email to us read, "Our billing team reached out to the insurance company" but "unfortunately, it took some time to receive the updated information from the insurance company."
They have that information now, and the hospital says Scheele's balance has been adjusted to $0.
After months of back and forth, CommonSpirit said it got that updated statement from the insurance company exactly one day before we reached out to the hospital.
