Oregon man wants state to reimburse him for wrong number

(Oklahoma City-AP) -- An Oregon business man says a wrong phone number sent him about 600 phone calls intended for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.

Now Ernst Mikkelson wants the agency to reimburse $1,400 for the calls.

In 1999, the agency changed a number that health professionals used to get authorization to treat Oklahoma Medicaid patients.

There were two numbers, a toll-free one for out-of-state callers and a local seven digit number. Some callers assumed the local number was toll-free and added the prefix 800 in front of it.

Instead of getting the health agency, that number called Mikkelson's credit rating service in Oregon.

Health Care Authority spokesman Nico Gomez says Mikkelson has no grounds for compensation. Gomez says the phone number wasn't wrong and the agency had no intent to harm Mikkelson or his business.