Central Maine Orthopaedics, P.A.

I broke my wrint/hand in an accident and went to Central Maine Orthopedic. I was told that I could either be in a cast for 6 weeks or have surgery and be better in about a week. I made it quite clear to them that I did not have any money for surgery and they checked with my health care company and both the doctor ([redacted]) and the woman who did my paperwork assured me it would not be a problem and that the surgery was being covered by the insurance. I elected to have the surgery and found out that both of their claims that led me to have the surgery were lies. First, I was not cured in a week, it took 4 weeks until I had use of my right hand again, and even then, it was limited... To make it worse, a couple weeks after that, I received a bill from CMO for $2,840. This was the amount United refused to pay. I contacted both United Health and CMO, and discovered that United paid the maximum that they will pay for that type of surgery and that if CMO charged $11 more than they did, the whole claim would have been denied. It seems painfully clear to me that CMO is charging based on how much they can collect, not on how much the actual surgery should cost. They lied to me and let me to believe surgery was the way to go, but instead, I now have a $2,840 bill that went to a collection bureau.