Totally unintelligible billing prior to outpatient surgeries. Needed a back shot and outpatient billing told me my insurance would authorize a payment to them of almost $10,000, so I would owe 20% prior to the shot. Doesn’t make any sense, as a previous in-patient 3 hour surgery only had a facility charge of $4,000, with me paying 20% of that. I believe St. John’s charges 20% of the inflated amount they will be billing, not the amount they have contractually agreed to accept, hoping the patient will either forget to ask for a refund months later when everything is billed, paid and settled or that they will get use the patient’s money for that period of time. I had a similar problem last year with a small outpatient surgery at St. John’s, where they required I pay my max out of pocket amount prior to surgery, then had to refund me about 90% of that a few months later, after lots of arguing with them.