HOUSTON – Texas law states police departments are to cover the cost of sexual assault examinations ordered as part of an investigation. This is why one woman couldn't understand why she kept getting calls from debt collectors about an unpaid medical bill from the hospital where her exam was performed.
"I was scared, I was nervous, I felt gross about the whole thing," the woman said.
Those feelings are only part of the trauma rape survivors deal with long after the attack is over. The woman told us she was attacked by a co-worker in 2011.
“Despite all my kicking screaming, scratching; he raped me," she said.
After the attack she said police instructed to get a sexual assault exam. She said that exam was conducted at Memorial Herman Hospital off I-10 and a police officer was present.
She said her attacker skipped town before police had a chance to question him, so she worked on rebuilding her life.
"It took quite a while for me to feel normal again and just like feel safe in everyday situations," she said.
That recovery hit setbacks when she got periodic calls from debt collectors, notifying her she hadn’t paid her medical bill.
"Getting the phone calls just brings all that right back up to the surface," she said. "I'm not responsible for this, stop calling me."
She told us she never received any treatment in the Memorial Hermann system prior to police telling her she needed a sexual assault exam. She said she also never received a bill from the hospital system.
After years of making calls and sending letters to stop the calls from debt collectors, she thought the ordeal was behind her. That is until this week, when she received a call from another debt collector.
"I got that phone call the other day and I was getting ready to run some errands and I just had to go back into the house and was like shaking," she said.
Channel 2 Investigates then called HPD on this woman's behalf. HPD officials confirmed the investigation, but said they are still researching what happened with payment for the exam.
KPRC spoke with officials at Memorial Hermann, who immediately jumped in to help. Citing patient privacy, hospital officials could not comment on this woman's case. However, the woman told us she received a call from officials in Memorial Hermann's billing department and was told her bill was being adjusted and the calls from debt collectors will now stop.
