866-365-2211

Said they were the patient billing on the answer machine. Called back and got the message saying that I had called the Swedish Medical Center.

Hello, this is the patience account billing office calling, at your earliest convience please contact us at 1-866-365-2211, once again, this is the patience account billing office calling, at your earliest convience please contact us at 1-866-365-2211.

When I call it says, "Your call can not be completed as dialed, please check the number and try again." Error -> 2EK

Seems odd that a billing service would have an invalid call back number.

When I call back the caller ID number it says, "Thank you for calling, Due to the holiday, no one is available to take your call, please call back again later."  Then it rings.......

Got a message from this number. Message said it was the patient billing office. I called the 1-866 number in response, the automated system announced them to be Swedish Medical Center and got a human on the line.

I told her the I received a call that I believe was misplaced, and she said she was more than happy to help be figure out why I was called. (First tip it was a phishing call). I gave her my phone number (public info, apparently already had it), and my first name. She pushed for the last name (public info, not too worried about that), and I gave it to her. She looked up the wrong phone number (switched a couple digits) and asked me if my name was Mary ... which is not the name I gave her (second tip.) Then she asked for my date of birth to confirm my identity (third tip), which I did not give her. Then she asked from my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER (fourth tip), which I did not give her.

I told her why I refused to give her that information, because I was suspicious about the message I received, that it was so non-descript and that she couldn't tell my why they called after I supplied my name and phone number. She got very defensive and started lecturing me on HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) privacy regulations (fifth tip) and applying even more pressure to disclose this information (sixth tip).

I was not able to link Swedish Medical Center to the 1-866 number, and will do my best to pursue reporting this event.

well I DO have a bill at Swedish so that parts sounds legit to me.  It's not in delinquent status though so I don't know why they're calling but I guess I will call tomorrow - both numbers.  I have the same scenario as you all.. call ID shows the 425 # and their message is the 866 #.  What pisses me off beyond no end is that they have called FOUR times today.  so no matter what they actually want, they have started off on a very bad foot with me.

Message on phone twice said to call them and that they were from the patient account billing office. I do not have medical bills that are owed. I believe this to be a scam. Please report.

My message was the same as above.  I do not plan on calling, as I don't have outstanding medical bills.

Hey, I think this is legit.  Before I gave any more information than my name and address (which are in the phone book), the woman on the line told me the date I was in the hospital (that was correct) and the balance on my account (correct to the cent).  Also, if you are a Swedish customer (which I am), you will notice that their toll free number printed on Swedish literature begins with the 866-365-xxxx prefix.

This is most likely a legitimate call. I DO have a bill from Swedish. I work in healthcare and HIPPA is a huge concern to us all. The caller ID showing Providence is probably a "leftover" from when they actually were Providence Hospital on First Hill in Seattle. (it's now referred to Swedish Cherry Hill.

If you don't have a bill from Swedish understand that there are tons of recycled phone numbers out there. It's possible that someone who has an outstanding bill at Swedish may have had your phone number at one time.

I do understand everyone's concern though considering the world we live in.

I agree I think this is legitimate.  1-866-365-2211 got me to the Billing office for Sacred Heart Medical Center.  We had a family member have surgery there recently, and have been waiting for a bill.  The lady on the phone gave her name, Eva C. and asked for phone number, address, account number.  She offered a payment plan, which I was not interested in, but I did ask about a prompt payment-in-full discount.  She said it was normally 30 days, we are a week over that grace period, but she checked and was able to extend the 15% discount for us.  She asked if I wanted to pay with Visa or Mastercard.  I said I needed to check with my husband first and that I would call them back.  She said she would make a note on our account, so that when we called back, by the end of the day, we would still be able to get the discount.  

I talked to my husband, and we called back through Sacred Heart Medical Center's phone number, to ensure that we were not being scammed and giving out our CC# to someone we didn't know.  They transferred us to billing.  The information was on our account, we received the discount, and unless Sacred Heart is in cahoots with some phishing group, I'm pretty certain that this is legitimate.

Yesterday I received the message on my answering machine. “Hello, this is the patients accounts billing office calling.  At your earliest convenience please contact us at 1-866-365-2211.  Once again, this the patient accounts billing office calling.  At your earliest convenience, please call the patient accounts billing office at 1-866-365-2211.  Thank you.”  

I had to listen to it at least 7 times in order to make out what the computerized voice was saying because 1) the voice spoke extremely fast, and 2) it was so soft, even at the highest volume (#7), I could barely make it out.  And on top of that, they don’t say WHICH patient accounts billing office!

I don't have Caller ID, however, I figured it was probably Providence Hospital, although that number is not found anywhere on their bills. (Who knows, perhaps it's a collection agency for Providence.)  In any case, I am already working on my bill with an individual in their billing department and we usually use email to communicate. I just think it's rude of them not to indicate with whom the account is for.  Pretty presumptuous, if you ask me, which only validates how poorly I was treated, and not just medically, while in their ER.

When I googled the phone number, it only confirmed my suspicion it was Providence, although I certainly didn't expect to find anything like this.  One can only hope they might get a look at these comments!

did not respond to hello. I hung up. I called back it is a patient accounts but did not identify from whom they were calling for.

msg as reported by others.  returned the call, giving a fake number to the automated system.  the "representative" said  he was from Swedish and Providence. I asked what state, he said "several".  He asked if I was calling from "..." and recited my real home number.  I said yes. Asked my name, gave him a real first and fake last.  Asked if there was also a "...", at this number using my husband's real first name.  He said "ok, then, we'll remove your number from the system."
This is concerning to me because like a previous poster, we really do have an account at Providence. It makes me wonder if their sytem is secure.

I can't imagine a phone message not identifying who the calling business would be.

As far as I know, all of my medical bills were paid months ago. When I called, the answering machine said they weren't open yet. That sounds somewhat legit, but this still sounds a little weird.

As a college student, the only medical care I have had has been through my university's medical center, which bills directly to my student account.  Therefore, there is no reason I should be receiving this call.  

In addition, this phone number has been mine for over five years, so the recycled number theory is no good as far as I am concerned.  

They have called every day (excluding weekends) for the past week and a half, and I have answered before to no response.  I'm sick of this.  It needs to stop.

left a message for patients billing accounts -- have never heard of Swedish -- tried to call back but they "were not open"

This is legit.  It's a billing company that represents two hospitals, Swedish and Providence.  When I called back the rep asked for my name and telephone number (which is listed, so no biggie), he then asked for my mailing address (again, public knowledge).  Then he described why they were calling and provided specific (and correct) dates of service and exact billing amounts (write off amounts, billed amounts, etc.).  

I complained about the fact they don't id themselves on the generic message, but he said since there they work for two hospitals (competitors) they don't want the message to id them.  Sounds like a weak excuse to me, but I can say the call was legit.

HIPAA regulations make this an unfortunate necessity.  Before divulging any information related to a health care account a covered entity is required, by law, to verify the identity of the patient/customer they are speaking to.  Positive ID cannot be made when leaving a message, so we can't identify ourselves in our messages (or else we would be revealing that the person we were calling for was a patient) without violating HIPAA privacy laws.  It's silly, but so is not being able to speak about one's parents' care (for example) without a signed release form.  That's just HIPAA.

A recorded message stated they were calling from the patient billing office. That was the extent of identification. I owe on a medical bill, so I called the number just in case there was a change in payment arrangements. A recorded message said I would need to wait for the next customer service agent. Again, there was no identification. I hung up. It's like something out of Kafka. I do believe that if they were legitimate, they would identify themselves.

I received a voicemail saying that patient accounts was calling and to please call them back. I googled the number first and was directed to this website.

I was in a car accident 2 months ago and still have medical bills pending, so after seeing this site it made sense who was calling. I called back and it was indeed the 3rd party billing company for Sacred Heart. They pulled up my account and it turned out they were calling to check the status of something we had discussed about a month ago. Definitely a legitimate phone call, in my instance anyway.

This trash has been calling at all hours in an obvious attempt to elicit confidential information.  They need to be closed down.