Fake name, real bill: Former Taylorsville mayor charged twice under two different names

TAYLORSVILLE — Imagine being told you have to pay hospital bills that you already paid.

That is what happened to Taylorsville resident and former Taylorville mayor Janice Rasmussen. Her emergency medical care bills were paid, but bills kept coming.

And there's a twist: Rasmussen was getting bills under two names, her own and someone named Brickred Cimmorden.

Who is Brickred Cimmorden?

"It's a phantom," Rasmussen said. "Is it somebody that doesn't exist?"

The billing drama stems from some real-world trauma.

In January, Rasmussen was walking out of a diner in Sandy when she was hit by a car. She was knocked to the ground, and she hit her head.

Rasmussen was rushed to the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, where hospital workers assigned her an alias.

You can see it on the hospital bracelet she still has: "Brickred Cimmorden," it reads.

Eventually, the hospital got Rasmussen's real name. She was billed under her real name, and those bills were paid.

But months later, more bills showed up, now under the alias. They sure seemed to be the same debts that had already been paid. Hospital codes, dates and dollar amounts all match.

Rasmussen said she called, wrote and even faxed proof of payment, a copy of the bill and the hospital bracelet to the billing company. But five months later, the bills kept coming.

"I'm frustrated because I don't know anything else I can do," she said.

What she decided to do was Get Gephardt.

The bills were not coming from the hospital, per se. They were coming from Utah Emergency Physicians, a professional group of emergency doctors who work inside its ER. Get Gephardt reached out to them.

Dr. David Barnes, an administrator for the group, confirmed it was a mix-up.

"If we can't verify the identity of a patient, they get an alias name when they first arrive," said Barnes.

When a patient has been assigned an alias, which happens often in trauma situations where the patient may not be in a position to give their name, it is eventually merged with the patient's real name before they are discharged.

At least, that is the way it is supposed to work.

"Unfortunately, when Janice left, that alias chart did not get merged with her actual name and actual chart," he said. "So she received a bill for this alias name, and the billing company didn't know what to do with it properly."

Barnes said the hospital recently updated the way it assigns aliases, which could be partially responsible for the confusion in its billing department. 'Brickred Cimmorden' is mostly a random, computer-generated, letter salad, Utah Emergency Physicians said. 'CIMM' in Cimmorden is a locator, representing 'Central Intermountain Murray,' but the letters are otherwise meaningless. Still, you can see how it kind of, sorta looks like it could be someone's name.

And, in addition to being assigned the alias name, Rasmussen was also given an alias date-of-birth, further making it seem, on paper, like it was two different people.

Still, Barnes relents that Rasmussen should have been able to clear it up when she tried to do so, before calling KSL.

"Janice did the right thing in trying to call and get this corrected," he said. "The problem was that our billing company wasn't aware that that was an alias chart, and they missed the fact that that wasn't her name. And they weren't very helpful when she tried to call and get this corrected."

Barnes said Utah Emergency Physicians has now talked with its billing company about how to recognize and handle alias accounts, so hopefully this will not happen to future patients.

As for Rasmussen?

"Oh, we apologize. This is very frustrating," Barnes said.

Frustrating, no more.

That phantom bill, like a phantom, has now vanished.

Rasmussen had been calling the number listed on her bill. Utah Emergency Physicians said that had she called its offices directly, the group could have helped her.

If you are having a billing issue and are not getting anywhere with the billing department, it could be worth a call to the actual provider.

Related topics