Another Rant - Medical Billing

Lisa K

This rant is the other side of my medical care rant that I started back in July.

The hospital that my dad was in and out of uses a Billing Company that in my opinion has practices that are borderline fraud.

First the sent my dad a bill for the whole amount for the services administered in July with a Now Due  date but if you read a little further down, in small print the bill stated that the claim has been sent to the insurance company. In other words, he did not owe anything yet!

Then in September he started to get a bill for $500, I was not sure if this was something that was not covered so I waited until I received the Advisement from the Insurance company. In the meantime he kept getting Due Now notices for the $500. Then in October we received the Advisement and it said we owe nothing from the original claim and it showed that the contracted amount for the all of it including the $500 was paid.

Then in January, while dealing with the loss of my dad, I received a Collection letter for the $500, I contacted the Insurance Company who could not tell me much but I was given the address and phone number if the Billing Company wanted to contest what they were paid. So I took a copy of the Advisement and the billing info and sent it to the Collection Agency. I have not heard anything since.

Now I am dealing with the same Billing company for another customer of theirs. There are sending a bill for $204 which again the contracted amount has already been paid. I tried calling the billing company in April and after being on hold for a half-hour, I was told they could call me back but I had a class to get to so I declined. Instead I sent a copy of the Advisement instead of a payment but it did not work. So I called them again on Tuesday only to find out that the system for that particular customer is down and I will receive a call within 1-3 days, I am still waiting, the only time I left my house was for my class and took the material with me in case they called but nothing so far as of Friday morning.

I also received one bill for “discharge” but for a date my dad was still in the hospital, I am thinking that was an error since I have not seen any other bills … hopefully.

The frustrating part is that it is their error or greediness. I say fraud/greediness is because they are trying to get paid for the FULL amount, not just the difference.  

Key take away – don’t pay for anything right away and wait until the Insurance Company lets you know what is and is not your responsibility.

Thank you for letting me rant!

Linda Bittle

@Lisa K I'm giving you a vote up because this is such important information, but I really wanted to give a hug because it's a shame that you have to deal with that.

Lisa K

Hi @Linda Bittle thank you so much!

I did question whether I should post this but since the TGN family was there for me with the first rant about what my dad and I experienced when he got sick, I thought that I would post this as a follow-up and warning.

dipat2005

@Lisa K billing companies and hospitals are such a pain. Sounds like you will come out of it ok. I had a problem such as this but knew what happened in Surgery because I was awake and they charged me for things that were not used (medicine.) We have to be so careful and follow up these days.

Linda Bittle

https://community.thegrownetwork.com/discussion/comment/922475#Comment_922475

I think a lot of us like to believe that everyone still acts with honesty and integrity, and it's just not so anymore. Especially when money is involved. Medical billing and insurance are so complex, and it's easy to pad the bill or double bill. Just about a year ago I took advantage of a special lab test day and paid the 50.00 in full at the time (had the receipt, too!) A month later, I got a bill for 20.00, which I disputed right away. I called first, and they told me to email a certain person. I scanned and emailed the Facebook advertisement that they had run several times prior to the day, clearly showing the special price. They never replied, but I've not gotten another bill. I thought they probably counted on people just paying 20.00 since the amount was (relatively) small.

kbmbillups1

Wow! It sounds like you're on top of this and have all of the documentation needed. Good luck getting to the bottom of this!

SuperC

Yes, it is best to wait for the final bill because of the insurance and what they will cover. Thank goodness you read the entire notice. Seems like you have all angles covered. Human error may seem frustrating, luckily we are here to receive your vents and you can allow yourself ease.

Michelle D

@Lisa K I'm glad that we are able to be a safe place for you to rant. I know I can't help you resolve any of these billing issues but I can be here for emotional support! I can completely understand your frustrations. We have been through a similar experience with medical bills related to my youngest son's heart condition. The medical issues themselves can cause so much stress and then the company adds to the stress, it can be very draining.

heirlooms777

You can pay $5 a month for the rest of your life (try to find company to do it, as you miss then this trick doesn’t work). They can’t ask for more if you shoe compliance

you can ask to get a reduced fee

you can ask for grants in hospital and other organizations; here we dial 211 for this type of information

you can take all of the Grow Food Network classes and stop medical bills (I’m not a doctor I just play one on tv ;)

Lisa K

Thanks to everyone for your support, I love this Community!

@dipat2005 that is so scary, what if you were not awake and they did things that the insurance would not have covered!

@heirlooms777 I agree, TGN has great classes and I have taken them all along with others. I was trying to get my dad on more natural remedies but it was a slow process and his health had started to fail a few years back.

I was once called a cynic, if questioning everything is cynical then yes I am a cynic. 😊

Lisa K

Well, the Billing company never called back which meant I wasted 3 days for them to call back. Then on Friday I received another bill from the Hospital for a full amount with a small note about the insurance "missing or expired for the visit" (that makes 3 deceptive bills).

I checked the insurance advisement and sure enough they were paid the contracted amount already.

I am going to try one more time to clear this and the other one up and if it does not work, I am going to file a complaint with the Insurance company and Medicare. At the very least, these bills are deceptive and aimed at an elderly person.

Lisa K

Today, I called TeamHealth and was able to speak to a person right away, I then emailed the insurance advisement and this might be resolved quickly (this was the 3rd invoice).

Then I finally received a call from the Billing company for the Urologist, she had already put through the request to zero out the balance! Now the representative did say something a bit weird, she made it sound that they were zeroing it out due to my dad passing, either way he did not owe it so I am good with the result!

Michelle D

@Lisa K I'm so happy for you. That is wonderful news. I'm sure that is a huge relief.

Lisa K

@Michelle D thanks and yes I feel so much lighter today!

Lisa K

Well, I thought all had been taken care of until last week when I received another bill for the amount mentioned above and a rather condescending letter that stated that the person had reviewed my dad's records then went on to explain that the charges are within guidelines and the cost is high due to it being the Emergency department.

So today I sent a email pointing out that the reason I originally called is because this was the 3rd time a billing company had sent a bill that had already been paid by the insurance company and that I find this sort of billing as deceitful.

Good thing I am retired so I can take care of all this STUFF!

Michelle D

@Lisa K do you have a receipt showing your payment? You could try just mailing a copy of that back to them with the billing statement. This sounds so frustrating! I'm glad that you are keeping a good attitude about it.

Lisa K

@Michelle D I talked with them, emailed the Insurance Advisement twice and then emailed them again with the advisement, an explanation (again) and the Insurance company's contact info if they need it.

With one of the other TCH billing companies, I did mail the advisement for that bill which they ignored, so I called them. They did zero it out but I think it had more to do with dad passing than correcting their mistake.

Well the way I see it, the worse they can do is send my dad to collections at which point I send the advisement for a 3rd time, this worked for the first bill that the first billing company sent which had already been paid for. They cannot hurt his credit nor put a lien on anything since it is now all in my name.

For me it is the principal and if they continue to harass dad/me, I will just notify the insurance company and Medicare of their deceit.

shllnzl

Here is an article discussing how seniors are being improperly harassed about medical billing.

https://crystalclearnews.com/unresolved-medical-bills-seniors-facing-a-whopping-54-billion-nightmare/[email protected]&aid=4&ptn=CCN

Lisa K

@shllnzl interesting article, what I do not get is why this is allowed to happen, some of the stories in the article in my opinion is insurance/Medicare fraud. Luckily, I have been able to resolve most of it (at least so far) but my dad's insurance did not seem to concerned and since everything has been changed from his name to mine, there is nothing for them to go after.