Ugh! Medical Bills!

[Gnusgal]

As if it weren't enough stress to be told you have to have surgery. Or to fight the battle of scheduling to get it set up. Or to go through the surgery itself. Or to go through the pain of recovery... Oh, no! There's one more stress they have to pile on.... Bills.

Now, I have two insurances, so this shouldn't be a big stress. On top of that, by now my primary insurance is paying 100% due to all of the surgeries I had in 2008. But no. The stinkin' billing offices have to screw it up! They billed my SECONDARY first! What?! Why do I bother telling them "This is my primary. And this is my secondary." if they're not even going to pay attention? I now have a pile of bills that I have to make phone calls about tomorrow at some point. Forget trying to actually work. Ugh! Why do we have to tell them how to do their jobs? No one tells me how to do mine! And I seem to do just fine.

Sorry. Rant over.

 

[zipper2]

Nikki, I know what you feel like.

Our insurance undercharged us for the lovenox,as recently my hubby
through work had to change plans,and this new insurance is gibbled
Get ahold of me after i pay fro my lovenex shots and all of a sudden it goes
from 60dollars to 160dollars
Like make up their mind and get it together,best is they forgot to put hubby's check in at work for 2 weeks,not a big deal(tie into reserves) but this secretary's been there 7 years,not sure how busy she was hitting on guys upon return to work(known for that) but obviously i told my hubby he didn't look good that day at work for her ,she forgot his pay:
it's generally one thing after the other for us too.
But i thought we did better on 1st price of injectionsthen 2nd quote
Now i'm a tummmmy junkie and connecting tummy dots,not working and on it goes.
gosh,it carries on day to day,and its so dark from daylite to night the weathers depressing and if my inr doesn't scoop up slowly here i will need more 160.00 inject's,,but im almost completed the dots:

Sometimes it does suck but try to ,The best is yet to come for all of us.
I know it's worse for cost in your area of the country and i can't imagine
the stress for some here on vr......this time next year you be running after
those twin cuties........omg so excited for you and Nathan.

zipper2 (DEB)

 

[Nancy]

The idiots are taking over the world!

 

[Gnusgal]

The idiots are taking over the world!

Sadly, this seems to be too true.

 

[Rich]

They are everywhere these days. My wife has to have perio cleanings three times a year due to another dentist's screw-up. Insurance approves these only at three times a year with evidence of necessity by a dentist.
So they called and made her an appt. for a cleaning, except they didn't mention this would be NUMBER FOUR! We got stuck with the whole bill. When my wife called the little girl says 'well we don't look at your records, so why are you calling, what do you want us to do?'
I really can't post what my wife told her on a public forum.
Needless to say we are in the process of moving on.
Rich

 

[debster913]

I hate dealing with insurance here, too, and sometimes the incompetent billing company. I was on one insurance plan the year I had my valve surgery where I had to pre-notify the company before each and every visit to my cardio. That was a lot of calling, considering that I saw my cardio about a dozen times that year!

Recently, I had to deal with the billing company my cardio uses. I received a 10-page itemized bill in the mail, along with a warning that this was my last notice before the bill was sent to collections. I never got a first bill! I had paid my cardio's office a few months before for the original amount indicated on this bill (because I hadn't "paid" this amount, according to the billing company, I owed in a couple hundred extra). I had to call up the rep at the company. They had never posted my check, althought it had been cleared! Good grief! That was finally settled, because my cardio's MA had told me I wouldn't be able to see the doctor until the bill was paid. Sigh.

Geez. I feel ya, Niki. Wishing you the best with the soon-to-be-here twins!

Love, Debi (debster913)

 

[Lisa in Katy]

Niki, They really should be billing both insurance companies at the same time. Believe me, the insurance companies know which one is primary! Then when they get the EOB from the primary, they forward it to the secondary. That way they don't have to worry about the timely filing deadline and not getting paid. Frankly, if you know you did everything right, you really should let them figure it out. They will be penalized if they screw up, not you, and you shouldn't be getting stressed out. They will never learn until it hits their pocketbooks.

I'm continually amazed at both sides of the medical bill paying equation.

We have a rule that is spelled out in the contract that the hospital has to notify us, either by phone or electronically, within 24 hours of an admission or they can be penalized. This is so our utilization review nurses and doctors can keep up with the case, making sure that the care is appropriate. I had a billing person tell me last week that it wasn't "fair" that we penalized them on 5 cases where they didn't notify us, amounting to a loss of over $100,000 for them. I told him that even though I understood that he would like to get paid, how could it not be fair when we followed the contract and they didn't. His reply was, "Well, it's just not fair." It reminded me of when I taught first grade! By the way, these claims were from 2007, one as early as January, and they are just now figuring it out.

Then again, there was a hospital that we gave incorrect information to and they billed three claims per this misinformation. The claims were denied. Our notification department admits they gave the hospital incorrect information, but our claims department will not pay the claims because the hospital didn't do what they were supposed to do. These three claims total about $1200 and I have been fighting our own people for 3 months!

Here's my advice for everyone - Pay your copay or coinsurance up front when asked, but don't pay anything else until you see the EOB. Doctors are notorious for sending out bills before the insurance company has paid. They are also notorious for billing you for amounts they are supposed to write off. It can be very difficult to get a refund from some of these people.

 

[Lisa in Katy]

Deb, why are you paying for Lovenox? It's not covered by the government healthcare? I've never paid more than $30 for the entire set of injections.

 

[hall]

There is a lot of incompetant people out there. Seems like every time you go to doc, dentist, eye doc, whoever............there is an insurance mess to clean up. We have been working on my husbands glasses getting paid for for 6 months. Finally called the "home office" and guess what? More incompetant people. They said they will call back and they don't do it either. It gets on your last nerve. Not much of a choice.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Question for anyone who has an opinion:

Wouldn't it make sense to ask to speak with a Supervisor and inform them of the Mistake made by their people?

As I see it, complaining to low level workers, friends, or internet chat groups may make us feel better, but is NOT going to change anything. You've got to get to someone who actually has the power and ability to make a change.

 

[zipper2]

Deb, why are you paying for Lovenox? It's not covered by the government healthcare? I've never paid more than $30 for the entire set of injections.

Lisa don't forget this is Canada and for some stupid reason,under the Canada
Healthact all our drugs admiistered within hospital,setting are insured and funded.
outside the hospital provincial and territorial govt.are responsilble for aministering their own.

Most or some of us have access to health insurance coverage for percription
meds through public or private insurance plans,but the govt,offers varying levels of coverage@ eligibility requirements ,premiums @ deductables.

the healthcoverage we were on at hubbys work got changed cus everyone
complained the high premiums,so they have a new insurance now and this insurance will contact sakatchewan (the healthy people)the (healthy province) i'm being cinical here Lisa sorry,but it ticks me off anyhow they contact this group of healthy people to lower it which the healthy people will lower it and i should get money back.

But you see healthcare is smart i went to emergency to get injections and they wanted to pawn it off on homecare it's their job,not ours to inject you
the nurses said in emegencyGive me a break i need it now not at the convienience of homecare deciding a date they can come to my home.
i took on the injections myself i mean i've given lots at workplace with mental health in past,i have a licence and sides i can do my own.
But see emergency wouldn't do the injections which meant i buy my own perscription so homecare would get the work. I chose not to inconvienience homecare.I'm being cinical again
so in the end not sure if i get any money back yet or not,but won't take long for i know.

zipper2 (DEB)

 

[sue943]

Reading this just makes me feel grateful for the health system that we have in place here. We don't have the NHS as we are not in the UK, we just have a wonderful system which is almost free, with us just paying a part of the fee to see our primary care physician, then our optical and dental charges. Everything else is free including drugs and digital hearing aids. I even get free toothpaste as it is prescription only strength of fluoride.

 

[Ross]

The idiots are taking over the world!

Honestly it's the truth! Gnusgal, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to print up billing invoices and start charging these morons $150 an hour for my time spent straightening out their mistakes. Why shouldn't we? They get paid, we should too.

 

[ponytaila1a]

Hey guys!! Be thankful you have insurance!! The stress of wondering how much a procedure will be and the phone calls just to see how much you will be billed and to even decide if you can "go for it" is overwhelming! Count your blessings.

 

[Eva]

Niki, sorry you have to deal with this...it is a big tension on me too, as Nancy said, they are everywhere.

I have to make phone calls to some doctor's offices reminding them to charge the correct insurance co.?!! which we changed two years ago to which they were send bills in 2007. Unfortunately the headache might be there sometime even when you have one insurance co.

Take it easy ... it is always hard when we have to waste double and triple energy/time unnecessarily.

 

[Lisa in Katy]

Again, give the hospital/doctor the needed information up front, making sure they make copies of your card or cards. Then it is up to them to do what they are supposed to do. Their contract with the managed care company says they can't bill you if they screw up. Let them figure it out and fight it out. It is caused by their incompetence. After several years in this business (on both sides of the table), I am of the opinion that until and unless they actually send me to collections, I do nothing. If they call, I will answer their questions, but I will not go out of my way for them. Put the burden on them to do their jobs correctly. Way less stress that way.

 

[Ross]

 

[Eva]

Honestly it's the truth! Gnusgal, I don't know about you, but I'm ready to print up billing invoices and start charging these morons $150 an hour for my time spent straightening out their mistakes. Why shouldn't we? They get paid, we should too.

If this can be started somehow, employers may become more careful wiht the choice of their staff!

 

[hensylee]

If this can be started somehow, employers may become more careful wiht the choice of their staff!

it's the Peter principle, you know.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Hey Ross =

Can you put something heavy and flat on the paper when you scan it so that it doesn't ride up (and out of focus)?

EDIT - That's interesting. The copy of your copy is easier to read that your copy (which is now in better focus that when I first tried to read it. Please don't tell me I need to upgrade to Vista!)

'AL'