Hospitals Overcharging And Lying

Location: South Dakota, US.

I’m sorry if this isn’t the right place, I’m not looking to sue I just want to know if there’s someway I can protect others

My boyfriend and I have been going to this clinic for poor people basically. They use a sliding scale based off your income to determine how much you pay. It all started when we made an appointment for my boyfriends back and knee problems, we paid the $50 for the appointment and then they wanted him to get X-rays done but, they didn’t have any openings. They told us they could send us to another clinic for X-rays and it would all be covered in the $50 we paid. I asked 2 people at the first clinic, 2 more people at the second clinic, and everyone told us there would be no additional charges. Fast forward a couple months later and they’re hounding us to pay a $160 bill, saying that while they do the sliding scale as well we still have to pay. Since then we went to them one more time, when I got in for my appointment they told me my income hadn’t been verified since they were using my Medicaid. I told her that I sent in my w2 last year and that I was approved for class c, which was $50. She told me no problem and to send in my paystub from July and I would be good to pay the $50 once it’s verified. Now I have $160 bill from them and they’re claiming that I don’t qualify. I know this is probably on us for believing them but, is there anything we can do about this? $320 won’t put us out too bad, we have a credit card and just be conservative while we pay it off. But what about everyone else? There’s sooo many family’s and struggling people going there that can barely afford $50 per appointment let alone having it tripled for no good reason.

TLDR: income based hospitals charged us x3 times the amount despite numerous staff members tell us otherwise. Is there anything we can do to stop them from lying and taking advantage of those who have no other options?