Hospital billing.

0patience

A while ago, we went round and round with the hospital billing. Insurance says we owe this much and hospital says different. So I tell the hospital to to over the billing with me. 
So I think it's all squared away, I send them a check and life is good.
Then last month, I get a call from a collection agency for the hospital bill. 
I then go thru the whole thing all over again with them. I tell them that we went thru all of this step by step with the insurance company and the hospital billing and I never recieved anything else after that discussion.
They tell me that they will check into it.

Then yesterday, I get a check from the hospital for $25 for overpayment. 
So now I'm confused. If I overpaid, how did they send me to collections and do I cash the check?
Or is the hospital trying something underhanded?

jlmarta

We're learning that hospitals aren't just one entity. There are the doctors and medical personnel. For the most part, these are the White Knights. 

Then there are the folks on the administrative side of the house. These scheming, conniving individuals are the Black Knights and are forever trying to squeeze the last nickel out of any source available because they answer to a board of directors to whom the bottom line is all that matters. 

We have a bit of first hand evidence of the behavior of Black Knights and are running out of space to store it. Believe me, if insurance covers it you'll be sent home with anything from walkers or crutches down to emesis basins and the like, whether you need it or not. There's profit in things like that....  need I say more?

GoCards

We went through something similar with a hospital billing error.  Hours on the phone with insurance and hospital.  It took a letter to our state's attorney general to get hospital to correct. 
The only way to know for sure is to get in touch with the hospital to see what they say you owe on your account.  Then, check your credit report - if you were in collections there may be a delinquency shown that the hospital has to get the collections people to remove.
Sorry - you are in one of the most frustrating mazes that exists.

Wylaff

I had a $10 at the local hospital. I paid them, everything's good. 2 months later a collection agency contacts me for the same bill. I argue with them and get it taken care of, then two months after that a different agency calls me for the same $10.... All I could do is scream at them as to why they possible think I would have let $10 go to collections? And if I did, why would I pay them now?

Echambers

My guess is that they received an insurance payment and recalculate what you owed  Happens with my daughters doctor all time. 

Gray4lines

Probably just idiots. When we had some hospital bills coming, they could not even tell us the total or how many bills we'd receive,  since many come from different entities (doc, hospital, anesthesia, ...) not to mention insurance in the middle.

 I think it's also common for hositals to have an in-house collections agency, so they do not wait long to send bills to collections.

Gray4lines

jlmarta said:

We're learning that hospitals aren't just one entity. There are the doctors and medical personnel. For the most part, these are the White Knights. 

Then there are the folks on the administrative side of the house. These scheming, conniving individuals are the Black Knights and are forever trying to squeeze the last nickel out of any source available because they answer to a board of directors to whom the bottom line is all that matters. 

We have a bit of first hand evidence of the behavior of Black Knights and are running out of space to store it. Believe me, if insurance covers it you'll be sent home with anything from walkers or crutches down to emesis basins and the like, whether you need it or not. There's profit in things like that....  need I say more?

If they are billing Medicare , then I bet that explains some of the "extras" too. 

Amos_Umwhat

jlmarta said:

We're learning that hospitals aren't just one entity. There are the doctors and medical personnel. For the most part, these are the White Knights. 

Then there are the folks on the administrative side of the house. These scheming, conniving individuals are the Black Knights and are forever trying to squeeze the last nickel out of any source available because they answer to a board of directors to whom the bottom line is all that matters. 

We have a bit of first hand evidence of the behavior of Black Knights and are running out of space to store it. Believe me, if insurance covers it you'll be sent home with anything from walkers or crutches down to emesis basins and the like, whether you need it or not. There's profit in things like that....  need I say more?

Black Knights? 

Far too generous. 

How about, Evil Sorcerer's?  Wicked Overlords?  Soul-less blood suckers.  Something of that nature.  More to the point.

matkn293

I love when you are in the back room prepping for surgery and the billing person comes in to say, Sir, we need $2500 to perform this procedure. You pay the said amount. Then when everything goes to insurance you find that the hospital should have only charged $1250. Then you have to call the hospital to get a refund that takes 3 weeks. Next thing you know the bills from the doc, anesthesia, and whoever else you have no idea about come rolling through. 

Martel

We've had more than our share of medical bills and billing errors.  About 11 years ago we discovered it was better to not pay the hospital for the tens of thousands we owed at the time.  We let it all go to collections.  Those agencies worked out lower costs and payment plans that were doable. 

What's killing me now is dealing with a mail-order pharmacy from insurance we had a year ago saying they didn't fill a certain prescription until after our insurance ended.  But when we placed it and it ran, we did have insurance.  They just waited to fill it until a week after it ended.  At the time we got notice of everything being paid, but then the auditors got involved.  And they don't work like these collections guys.  The problem is, it's been so long that the pharmacy can't reverse the charge and go after the current insurance which would pay something for it.  At the time it cost us nothing; now it's $150.  Our insurance now may pay $100, but no one can give me an answer that they will.   

pross

The healthcare and insurance industries want to make this as difficult as possible.
  
Last year my son had 3 injuries in rapid succession - broken leg, separated shoulder and re-separated shoulder (Hockey player - not child abuse)  

We had a $2k deductible, which I knew I was going to hit easily.  After the first round of bills, submissions, re-submissions, etc. I finally told my insurance company I was just going to send them a $2k check and let them figure it out. Not a chance in hell they were letting that happen,

I had to submit and fight every bill, add up every deductible per bill and spend months of my life to end at the result where I paid $2k.  They just wanted to drag me into the mud hoping I gave up and paid the bills.  Whole system sucks.

Amos_Umwhat

One of the big problems is that there's no such thing as "the health care system"  What we have is about as much a "system" as Blackbeard, Captain Kidd & others like them were a "naval transport system". 

jgibv

ban pharmaceutical advertisements. 

create standard prices for common procedures, drugs, etc.

and move to a single-payer system and simplify the billing process.

but those things will never happen.

First_Warrior

Insurance companies pay wholesale and regular folks pay retail.

dirtdude

Am about to take another tour through the medical minefield to deal with the prostate cancer that was discovered a couple years ago but the levels were low enough to just watch and wait. Last PSA indicates it is time to move. I am going into this much better informed.

My hat is off to those medical professionals that concern themselves with their patients care but I am so done with doctors that are more concerned with cashing insurance checks than patient care. 

Ryan1990

Prayers up Randy!