Planning on dropping Health Insurance. Change my mind.

[buckeyefarmer]

Mine got sent to collections when I didn’t owe anything. I think this was before credit scores was a big thing.

 

[dmccarty]

Hospital got rude with us, even with insurance. Sent our bill to a collection agency because of their screwup. Took forever to get straightened because they are never wrong.

We have only had a few billing problems caused by the insurance company. I can only think of one but I will say a few simply because we have soooo many health care bills that we must have had more than one problem.

The vast majority of billing issues are from the provider.

We just had a bill sent to collection, after my wife had a long conversation with the provider about the bill and they said they would handle it. Well, they did not handle the bill and it was sent to collection. Wifey spends more time on the phone with the collection agency and the provider. The provider went back an listened to the recorded phone call, admitted their mistake and got the bill returned from collection.

This is not the first time this has happened.

People complain about insurance companies, but the vast majority of our issues have been with the provider, because of messed up billing, sending to collection for no reason, etc.

Later,
Dan

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Dan, glad you got it cleared up. In my case it was also the provider, not insurance company.

I got one health care provider that always wants to precollect. I always say I’ll pay when insurance tells me what I owe. They will claim they already checked with insurance, then I call insurance and find out they didn’t.

They tricked me a year ago, I was ready to walk out and not have a procedure done, they said how about a down payment. I said sure, it was under $100 and I knew I would owe that much.
After paying( after the procedure) I find out it was a x months at that amount, not a one time charge as they led me to believe. So when my insurance told me what I owed, I paid in full, and cancelled the credit card they had on file. They were able to get one extra payment in, so now I had overpaid. But they did refund that eventually.

 

[ultrarunner]

Medical billing is one of the more complex issues in Healthcare plus a lot is offshore.

A good coder is in high demand but many just aren’t up to speed…

we do have cash pay and the easiest of all and always at discounted rate and often significantly discounted…

Another confuses the heck out of people is the bills from multiple providers… surgeon, lab, anesthesia, durable medical goods… oh yes the Facility Charge…

Then often not a person at the facility able to resolve billing issues as it may be in house but not location where service provided…

Whole floors of hospitals dedicated to billing, coding, collection, insurance submitted, etc…

 

[KennyG]

I got one health care provider that always wants to precollect. I always say I’ll pay when insurance tells me what I owe. They will claim they already checked with insurance, then I call insurance and find out they didn’t.

They tricked me a year ago, I was ready to walk out and not have a procedure done, they said how about a down payment. I said sure, it was under $100 and I knew I would owe that much.
After paying( after the procedure) I find out it was a x months at that amount, not a one time charge as they led me to believe. So when my insurance told me what I owed, I paid in full, and cancelled the credit card they had on file. They were able to get one extra payment in, so now I had overpaid. But they did refund that eventually.

We see that "pay up front" business also. They ask if we have a co-pay or deductible or claim to know there will be one, but we tell them it's not our job to figure out the insurance payments. It's interesting that they always start by saying we MUST pay up front and when we refuse, it's OK and not a problem. Seems unscrupulous to me.

 

[ultrarunner]

It depends as it really is always between the insured and their insurance...

The provider may or may not be contracted with the patient's insurance company.

I think it is part of the problem as patients are too far removed when it comes to cost for the most part...

We all know people almost bragging how much their hospital stay costs as tens of thousands and dollars or hundreds of thousands only to say insurance paid it all or nearly all.

Remember the depends also applies to preventative, routine, planned and emergency or rehab services...

I see patients rescheduled all the time and some are serial abusers... they say bill me and never pay and then incensed when provider insists balance be paid as a condition to be seen...

Don't think early morning ATM or bank visits don't happen every week for out patient procedures...

Why leave something as important to third parties without self verification?

 

[tradosaurus]

Just had a root canal. Insurance paid 35%
Had my last kid in braces recently. $2500 of $5300 covered.
I rarely go to doctors but the older I get the more risk I have of an injury.

 

[ap0915]

If you live near a large city, almost every large city has at least 1 hospital that offers free healthcare to people with no insurance. Catholic hospitals in particular usually do as a charity.

 

[lman]

Around here they bill people that don't want to work and they eventually write it off as a loss when they don't get paid.
That's why a band-aid costs $50.00 for everybody else.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Around here they bill people that don't want to work and they eventually write it off as a loss when they don't get paid.
That's why a band-aid costs $50.00 for everybody else.

Around here they hound people who work, send the bill to collections, and drive them into medical bankruptcy.