I'm sharing this in case it might help someone else streamline dealing with a surprise medical bill. I went to the ER last June. I thought I had paid all outstanding bills related to the visit, and then two days ago I received a bill for $740 from the ER doctor, 11 months after the service.
My initial thought was that there had been some screw up in billing me, and the bill I held was from a collections agency. I spent 4 hours this morning talking to various departments in the hospital and none of them could tell me anything about it. I was avoiding calling the number on the bill until I could figure out its provenance independently. Finally one of the hospital service reps asked me if I had called my insurance, and that they would have the most information about the bill.
Well, I called my insurance company, explained the situation, and they were able to find the bill right away, tell me that it was not valid, and I shouldn't pay it. They put me on hold while talking to the billing company and provided me a reference number for its invalidation.
All in all, this was faster, easier, and cheaper than the back and forth certified mail experience I was expecting to have to question/clarify/settle the bill that turned out to be invalid. The lesson is, if you have insurance, don't forget that they can be your advocate in billing matters, even a year after the fact, and in my case, even after I was no longer their customer (I was their customer at the time of the billed service, which is what matters).
Submitted May 18, 2017 at 11:36AM by pa7uc http://ift.tt/2pXPU4l
