Vancouver’s regional health authority is suing a mother who allegedly didn’t pay her medical bills after she gave birth in one of its hospitals while visiting Canada six years ago.
According to a document filed in B.C. Supreme Court in April, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority is seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars from Yan Xia, who is listed as the defendant in the claim.
It’s alleged that Yan gave birth at Richmond Hospital in the spring of 2012 where she racked up $312,595 in medical bills in accordance with the hospital’s Rate Schedule for non-residents. The health authority claims Yan “expressly or impliedly” agreed to the fee when she accepted the hospital’s services.
The statement of claim said Yan received an invoice for $312,595 on Oct. 23, 2012. It states she has not paid any portion of the outstanding balance since that time.
Including the hospital’s 2 per cent interest rate on overdue accounts and other costs associated with the case, Yan could owe the health authority more than $1 million.
Carrie Stefanson, the public affairs leader for Vancouver Coastal Health, couldn’t comment on the particulars of a case before the courts, but said the health authority doesn’t usually charge the interest on outstanding balances.
“We don’t usually charge interest on overdue accounts, in this particular case, we haven’t exercised the right to charge interest nor have we waived the right to charge interest,” she told CTVNews.ca on Thursday.
She said Vancouver Coastal Health Authority always seeks reimbursement for the services they charge to non-residents.
“We are accountable to the residents of B.C. and we have to certainly provide for services down the road so our system has to be sustainable so we do make efforts to recover outstanding amounts,” she said.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
