Medical Bills You Shouldn't Pay

Business Week ^ | August 28, 2008 | by Chad Terhune

[GOPJ]

"Medical Reform" too often is seen as a question of who pays the crooks - rather than how to make medical delivery better and more efficient.

[AmericaUnite]

Bump

[Osage Orange]

The first thing that struck me is how happy I am that you are not my doctor with your attitude. WOW you have the very arrogant attitude that I mentioned.

Actually you know nothing about me....but I respect your feelings.

I realize she admitted she put on too much eye cream, but the resulting swelling of her eyes sounds like a scary symptom to me- one that needs to be checked out ASAP, the eyes are not something I would want to wait before getting medical attention.

It wasn't swelling of her eyes. It was the eyelids. Great difference. There you go again.

Many illnesses and injuries are caused by the patient not following directions- so they shouldn’t seek medical attention if they may have caused the problem?

I never exactly said that, did I?

If a man uses a power tool in a way he shouldn’t and causes great injury then he shouldn’t go to the ER, because it was his fault to begin with?

Okay......obviously we can't have a conversation. I can think of many things to say here...But let's just end this here.

Thanks

[AmericaUnite]

That does look just like the filters we use to strain urine! The hospital costs of all items have to include employee costs from purchase, delivery to Central Supply, filling each floors Pyxis System.

http://www.cardinal.com/us/en/providers/products/pyxis/

[Old Professer]

So does the paint supplies store.

[AmericanExceptionalist]

With the Federal Blue Cross/Blue Shield they tell you that you don’t have to pay the balance because they have paid the agreed amount when the doctor/dentist signed up with them.

Had some of the places try to collect, threaten a bill collector, and then I tell them to check with Federal BC/BS and give them the number and then call the local Federal BC/BS — their calls and letters stop.

They do it to my Mom all the time and I refuse to pay her bills like this but if I wasn’t handling it, I am sure she would pay.

We had one that threatened to ruin my Dad’s credit so he couldnt’ buy a car last year and he died in May ‘97. ou should have heard my comment to that remark. Believe they prey on senior citizens.

I just now noticed this thread.

It is not just insurance write-offs ("adjustments") that are relevant here, either. This past March, I received a bill from a provider for about $1,200 in unpaid charges. However, I had the pertinent EOBs, which I collect and enter into a medical spreadsheet: They indicated that the provider had been tardy in filing with BC/BS for reimbursement (the carrier allows 180 days); therefore, neither they nor we are responsible for the charges.

I sent a copy of the pertinent EOBs (there was a total of five services involved) to the provider, and that resolved the matter.

[PhiKapMom]

I do the same thing with bills and what they submit so I can go back and check on them when they come calling about some deliquency that is their fault not ours.

What bothers me are the people that don’t understand what is happening. There would have been $2500+ paid out this year if I didn’t track everything. The billing departments for medical have gotten so much worse over the last few years.

[AmericanExceptionalist]

I do the same thing with bills and what they submit so I can go back and check on them when they come calling about some deliquency that is their fault not ours.

What bothers me are the people that don’t understand what is happening. There would have been $2500+ paid out this year if I didn’t track everything. The billing departments for medical have gotten so much worse over the last few years.

You are to be congratulated for checking your bills (and your mom's bills) carefully before paying them. Like you, I believe in paying my legitimate obligations promptly; but paying for other people's mistakes is quite another matter.

Some people make the mistake of believing that whatever a bill says must be correct. But the people who work in billing departments are not infallible. And there is an old saying that is certainly applicable here: No one else will look out after your interests the way you will.

And you are surely correct in your observation that billing departments, by and large, have become more aggressive in recent years. My guess is that those who work in these departments have been instructed to bill the customer for all unpaid charges--even if the billing department was delinquent in filing the claim, and therefore at fault--in the belief that many will not notice, and will compliantly pay the amount for which they are billed.

[Hot Tabasco]

I see a patient in the office as an out-of network patient

Let me ask you this. You bill my insurance company, lets say Blue Cross Blue Shield, $276.00 for services to me. Blue Cross determines that the allowable amount is $166.00 They then pay you $149.00 and I pay my coinsurance of $17. End of story.

Now let me ask you this. Lets say I don't have any insurance coverage at all. Are you going to bill me the same $276.00 or are you going to bill me the $166.00 which is what the insurance company would normally have paid you ?