I just joined this thread and I love it so I thought I might share a story! I am currently in school for Medical Billing and Coding because of this incident and it saved my ass (and my credit) $4500.
So this happened to me last year when I had to go to the ER because my hearing aid dome fell off into my ear canal. I did not have insurance at the time and knew I was going to be royally fucked. Getting it out was quick to do (maybe 10 minutes) and a month later I recieved a bill for $5000+.
I called the number on the bill and they offered me a 1 year payment plan for $435/month or it would go against my credit into collections. I started to panic because I could not afford that and I thought it was wayyyy too far off. So what did I do? Called my grandma (an RN and semi experienced MB&C) and told her. She said that was not right and was probably miscoded. She told me to call the number back and ask them to look it over again and recode it.
I did just that and, another month later, the bill came in the mail. I cautiously opened it and it was $500. I almost did a backflip. It was coded as a trauma vs foreign object in ear canal. I was dumbfounded. I had been pinching pennies those two months and had $600 saved towards the 5k. I called and paid it off that day.
If something doesnt look right, question it. This happens more often than not and literally saved me my money, credit and sanity!
January 28, 2020 at 01:56PM
