“I’ll ask the desk for one,” I said.

I left the room and walked down the wide yellow corridor to the central elevators.

The finance office was at the far end of a windowless basement hallway past the hospital cafeteria.

A small brass plaque beside the heavy oak door said Patient Account Services.

A woman in a dark blue cardigan sat behind a metal desk piled with gray hanging file folders.

She glanced up and adjusted her bifocals as I came in.