Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 26, 1993                   TAG: 9311260014
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

DONOR'S BILL AN ERROR, HOSPITAL SAYS

"It was an absolute mistake the bill went to Mrs. Bass," said Mark Cohen, spokesman for the Miami hospital. "We are dreadfully sorry that occurred and we hope to learn something from it."

Kathy Bass, 47, a catering company employee, was elated when she heard the news.

"It's wonderful the donor bank is going to pick up the bill. Now I can pay for the funeral," she said. "If only we could make sure nobody else has to go through what I went through."

In a story published Wednesday in Fort Lauderdale and Thursday in the Roanoke Times & World-News, Bass told how the hospital sent her the bill and placed a lien on her son's estate, tying up insurance money she needed to pay for the funeral.

The bill should have gone to the University of Miami's Division of Transplantation for review, Cohen said. After the holidays, he said, the hospital will look at its billing procedures to ensure it does not happen again.

The hospital has removed the lien, Cohen said.

Les Olson, director of the university's organ procurement and preservation program, said he reviewed the bill on Wednesday and determined that all but $2,868 - the costs of normal emergency care - will be paid for by the donor bank.

The rest should be paid by whatever insurance money is collected from the car accident that killed 21-year-old Jeffrey Bass, Sept. 12, Cohen said. The driver who allegedly caused the crash has $10,000 in insurance that had been tied up by the lien, Bass said.

Jeffrey Bass was fatally injured at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 12 in a car accident in Homestead, Fla., when a woman ran a red light and rammed into the driver's side of his fiancee's car.