Billing flap is a misunderstanding, Croatian mom says
The perception that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia jacked up the price of treating a Croatian child is "a big misunderstanding," the child's mother said early Thursday on the hospital's Facebook page, pleading with Croatian supporters "not to write any more bad comments on the hospital pages."
Dana Atanasovska Situm, who is taking her 5-year-old daughter Nora Situm to Children's for a last-ditch experimental therapy for leukemia, apologized for the misunderstanding and blamed it on the hurry and confusion of the past few days.
Nora and her parents were scheduled to arrive in Philadelphia on Thursday evening, heartened by funding raised by fellow Croatians for Nora's care.
Those supporters used Facebook to vent their anger at the hospital in the belief that it increased the price for Nora's care at the eleventh hour.
"I have to inform you in good faith that there has been a big misunderstanding in the correspondence with the hospital," Atanasovska Situm wrote. "I have to point out that during this large-scale humanitarian action, which lasted only for a few days, many e-mail addresses have been involved so that we didn't even know whom the hospital sent a mail [detailing] the total amount needed for our Nora's medical treatment.
"Therefore, I apologize that due to all ... this hurry an omission occurred related to an unread mail concerning additional funds. ... Therefore, I would like to ask all of you, for the sake of my child's well-being, not to write any more bad comments on the hospital pages. I am asking you this because I would not like the blame to be put on people who only want to help my child."
Although she did not cite any specific amounts, she said Wednesday that the hospital's original bill was for $575,000, and that $262,000 was added to cover five years of posttreatment care.
Children's said in a statement that it does not charge for follow-up care at the time of initial treatment, but advises families about potential follow-up costs "so they understand the financial issues they may be facing."
The experimental care is a gene therapy treatment developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers. Although still very early in clinical use, the therapy has been remarkably effective against certain forms of leukemia, including ALL, the kind that Nora has been battling.
Contact Marie McCullough at 215-854-2720 or mmccullough@phillynews.com.
