Adirondack Medical Center in Saranac Lake (Photo provided by Adirondack Health)

SARANAC LAKE — More than 4,000 Adirondack Health patients recently received final billing statements prior to initial billing statements after a system error.

Adirondack Health contracts with Client Financial Services, a Michigan-based company, to manage billing statements for self-pay patients. Late last week, Adirondack Health and Client Financial Services staff ran a report and identified more than 4,000 initial billing notices that failed to automatically send. A related system error then mailed final billing notices instead, which included language referencing potential debt collection, and led many recipients to contact Adirondack Health directly.

“Adirondack Health regrets this error and takes full responsibility for the undue alarm it has caused a number of our patients,” said Robert Laba, Adirondack Health’s chief financial officer. “Our patient financial services team is working closely with the vendor, and affected patients, to fix this issue and ensure it does not happen again.”

Corrected billing statements have since been sent, with instructions to disregard the previous, incorrect statement.

“As a community hospital, we work with self-pay patients for a minimum of 120 days before turning accounts over to collection agencies,” Laba added. “None of these accounts have been turned over to collection agencies, nor would they be for at least four months.”

Patients with questions about their statements are invited to contact Adirondack Health’s patient financial services department at billing@adirondackhealth.org or 518-897-2217.