Burdizzo said:

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docb said:

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austinAG90 said:

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docb said:

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austinAG90 said:

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docb said:

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Aggie95 said:

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Long story short…daughter was involved in a car accident 2 years ago and was not at fault. She had some minor neck pain and headache so we went to the hospital as a precaution.
Days later we find out the driver had given expired auto insurance (State Farm). We later get a bill that I sent my auto insurance, also State Farm to cover the $900 hospital bill. Turns out they never did and they are coming after us daily. Do they do this to illegals that inundate hospitals?

Maybe I'm in the wrong and should just pay it, but since this was part of the accident, I don't feel responsible to pay out of my pocket.

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I think you should pay the hospital and then fight your insurance company. Why should the hospital do this stuff for free?

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Dumb

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So the doctor/hospital should eat the costs? If you think this then you are no better than the illegals not paying.

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It's the insurance company's responsibility, and to a fault the hospital for not following up on their billing. Has nothing to do with illegals, that is another issue. One X post @statefarm and a call to the Texas Insurance Dept will take care of it.

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Well at least y'all get a feeling of why health care costs are so high. I really can't think of a single other business that has to eat so much costs. The problem is with the insurance companies and the unfunded that drive this up. The reform needs to take place there. Honestly this is one of the main reasons I no longer pull trauma call at the hospital. In the end everyone likes to get paid for their services. I don't see how anyone could argue against that.

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My brother had emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder removed about 15 years ago. He is self-employed and self-in insured. When they gave home the bil, he said he was going to pay cash. They immediately cut his bill in half and even offered to let him pay in installments. I know of no other business model that offers a 50% cash discount.

I mentioned above I had a medical procedure that is now encountering billing snafus. The anesthesiologist sent me a bill and said I could pay it online. I went online to pay it, and amount due was different from (more than) the paper bill. I paid the paper bill amount. Two weeks later I got another bill from them for an even larger amount. Both of these bills differ from the statement of benefits I received from my insurance company. This procedure was pretty routine, and my carrier is fairly common (not like JimbobMutual of Mars), yet these asshats can't get their records straight. I have little sympathy for insurance companies or larger medical enterprises.

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You shouldn't. They have little sympathy for you either.

Dan Scott said:

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America is administrative hell hole.

Pay it and move on. Think of it as money spent to never have to worry about this again

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Do not do this. Never do this. This is just straight idiotic advice. That insurance company doesn't give 2 ****s about you, why would you pay their bills while they make billions in profits each year while also continously raising premiums. **** that noise.

Ginormus Ag said:

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Aggie97 said:

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agracer said:

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Aggie95 said:

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Dawnguard said:

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just to be clear:

you're trying to submit a claim on an expired policy? 'cause state farm will just ignore you and say they have no ownership.

So then, once finding out the other insurance isn't paying, you submit to your claim to your own insurance company. There's a whole department called subrogation that just works with getting your money back. If they recover, you get your money back and potentially remove the bad mark from the driving record.

Hopefully this will be claimed under uninsured or under insured motorist (if you paid for that). The insurance company will then use their own resources to get their money back from the at fault party.

But let's say you didn't have uninsured motorist because you fail to realize how many people don't have insurance? Well - Texas requires auto insurance to have something called "personal injury protection". The state mandated amount is $2,500 - available for every claim. That should also be available to you, and they can attempt to reclaim it from the at fault side. If you turned down PIP, you signed something saying that you understand that the law requires it, but you didn't want it anyway.

If all 3 of these insurance claims didn't go through, then just offer to pay, because otherwise it'll go to collections where they'll try really hard since they're making pennies on the dollar.

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Not 100% clear what you are asking...also, this happened in GA. The claim and accident happened while I had a State Farm policy. The at fault driver gave the cop a policy number that turned out to be expired, so when they totaled my daughters car, it was filed under my uninsured motorist. The hospital bill came up weeks later. I kept asking State Farm to handle it and fight it, but apparently they chose not too or something. I dropped them a few months later...probably a year after the accident.
It is in collections now, so I probably can't negotiate with the hospital at this point.

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you can still raise hell with state farm for not dealing with it to begin with. call first and then use social media if you have too.

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Don't forget to use my attorney will be calling you if you don't take care of this.

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This is the 100% correct answer. This works every time to speed things up and get the insurance to start doing their job.

My wife has been rear ended twice. Both times she was pregnant. Both times Allstate tried to drag it out until the magic words were said, "I'm pregnant and I need to call my attorney."

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Username fits. I didn't think rear ending resulted in pregnancy.

Also, you don't even have to be female to use this angle. Thanks Dems.

As a personal injury attorney, it never ceases to amaze me how Conservatives/ Republicans (which I am too!!!) absolutely refuse to ever make a claim against another's insurer but ESPECIALLY against their own insurer!! It's literally why you pay monthly premiums, & it's unlawful for insurance companies to "punish" you if you file a claim!! Hell, I can't even get my parents &/or brother to do so; therefore, I'm not throwing stones at anyone from my glass house.

There's clearly a mental disconnect within this political group that defies logic & reason. Frankly, I truly believe it's one of the last vestiges of actual 'racism' when this group are whites &/or minorities who've done well financially for themselves; without fail, these folks don't file a claim b/c they don't want to be like those 'poor brown & black folks' who habitually file claims, including for 'staged accidents'!!

However, this type of 'racism' doesn't harm actual minorities, & it's perpetuated solely at the financial harm of those who are so obstinate, racist, &/or elitist in their misguided thinking; meanwhile, insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank at YOUR expense!!!

p.s. Let this be a cautionary tale too; IF you're in a motor vehicle accident, don't say **** at the scene of the accident except to blame the other driver & NEVER give a recorded statement to ANYONE from an insurance company. Instead, you need to find a competent PI attorney (like myself- wink, wink) that you call first before speaking with anyone!!!

BTW- Good luck OP; I hope your child is doing well.

annie88 said:

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I have some really old pennies some back to the 1920s and 40s. I've looked them up and they're not expensive ones unfortunately but was given this little booklet to put them in and used to do it as a kid. Of course in the 70s it was easier to get pennies from the 30s and 40s.

I got it out the other day and looked at it and it is interesting. I'll keep looking through it to see if there's one that's actually worth anything but so far maybe 6 to 9 dollars apiece. So more than they were originally.

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I was in the first grade in 1959, small town, and across the street from the school was a small building, I think it had been a house, and this guy had converted it into a small store. No fruit, meat, or vegetables, just a little neighborhood store. He had those coin albums, made by Whitman, both the kind you put the coin in and can see the front but not the back and those that had the plastic slides so that you could see both sides of the coin. I came across a 1919 penny (not from his store, he was an avid collector) and that got me interested and I managed to buy an album or two. 1959 was the year they went form the wheat design to the Lincoln Memorial design for pennies. A few weeks later I found a 1909 penny, with the VDB initials on it. Not the San Francisco mint version, so it was worth like $3 or $4. Even as a 6 year old, I could see the potential of buying a roll of pennies for 50 cents and finding one worth a few dollars and still having 49 pennies from the roll, lol.

As you mentioned, It was easier long ago, particularly when dimes, quarters, halves, and silver dollars were silver, and not clad. I wound up getting all those little albums for coins. You could get Buffalo Nickels, Indian Head Pennies, Standing Liberty Quarters, Liberty Walking Half Dollars in change quite often. By the time all that changed, in the mid-60s or so, even with limited resources, I had accumulated $2,000 to $2,500 in my collection, all found in change I got and that my parents got.

I had a friends whose parents had a small grocery store in a relatively poor area and I bet they had a collection running over $200,000 or $300,000 or more. I had forgotten about that, I will ask him next time I see him.

FatZilla said:

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Dan Scott said:

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America is administrative hell hole.

Pay it and move on. Think of it as money spent to never have to worry about this again

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Do not do this. Never do this. This is just straight idiotic advice. That insurance company doesn't give 2 ****s about you, why would you pay their bills while they make billions in profits each year while also continously raising premiums. **** that noise.

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I believe half of all erroneous billing now is exactly this. They try to get people to just say eff it and pay. Time and resources are on their side.

I think that insurance companies pay a small fraction of what is billed and the doctor/hospital has to write off much or all of the rest to accept that insurance. If you pay 25% of the amount billed, they are probably coming off far ahead.

One of my neighbors was bitten by a rattlesnake maybe three or four years go. His total hospital and air ambulance bills ran to something like $360,000. Without insurance, they whittled it down to around $10,000.

eric76 said:

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I think that insurance companies pay a small fraction of what is billed and the doctor/hospital has to write off much or all of the rest to accept that insurance. If you pay 25% of the amount billed, they are probably coming off far ahead.

One of my neighbors was bitten by a rattlesnake maybe three or four years go. His total hospital and air ambulance bills ran to something like $360,000. Without insurance, they whittled it down to around $10,000.

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Well I got paid $100 dollars from my last hospital case draining an abscess in a patient's neck that was about to threaten their airway. This was done on a Saturday. Saw them probably 4 times in the hospital and one follow up in the office. They had not met their deductible so insurance refused to pay and all my office could get out of the patient was $100. But oh well I most likely saved her life so there is some satisfaction in that I guess. Insurance companies suck but unfortunately a lot of people think just because they have it that it's going to take care of everything.

We're talking about two very different things:

1) P&C Auto Insurance
2) Health Insurance

They're very different.

In the original scenario posted, I still say the best bet is going back to State Farm, reference the previous claim you filed, explain that the hospital bill hasn't been paid and ask them why State Farm's Uninsured Motorist coverage or Med Pay coverage didn't respond to the claim.

Even though you're no longer with State Farm, they're contractually obliged to handle that claim as it occurred when you had an in-force policy.

There may be a valid reason why they didn't pay it. Maybe you only had liability insurance? But if you had Med Pay or Uninsured Motorist, I think you'd have coverage, less any applicable deductible.

Ag in Tiger Country said:

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As a personal injury attorney, it never ceases to amaze me how Conservatives/ Republicans (which I am too!!!) absolutely refuse to ever make a claim against another's insurer but ESPECIALLY against their own insurer!! It's literally why you pay monthly premiums, & it's unlawful for insurance companies to "punish" you if you file a claim!! Hell, I can't even get my parents &/or brother to do so; therefore, I'm not throwing stones at anyone from my glass house.

There's clearly a mental disconnect within this political group that defies logic & reason. Frankly, I truly believe it's one of the last vestiges of actual 'racism' when this group are whites &/or minorities who've done well financially for themselves; without fail, these folks don't file a claim b/c they don't want to be like those 'poor brown & black folks' who habitually file claims, including for 'staged accidents'!!

However, this type of 'racism' doesn't harm actual minorities, & it's perpetuated solely at the financial harm of those who are so obstinate, racist, &/or elitist in their misguided thinking; meanwhile, insurance companies are laughing all the way to the bank at YOUR expense!!!

p.s. Let this be a cautionary tale too; IF you're in a motor vehicle accident, don't say **** at the scene of the accident except to blame the other driver & NEVER give a recorded statement to ANYONE from an insurance company. Instead, you need to find a competent PI attorney (like myself- wink, wink) that you call first before speaking with anyone!!!

BTW- Good luck OP; I hope your child is doing well.

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It is 100% not unlawful for an insurance company to pay your claim and then adjust the way they rate you the next time your renewal comes around. A person with 5 auto accidents, or $500k in medical related to chronic conditions, will absolutely be paying higher auto and/or health insurance premiums than someone with zero auto accidents or minimal medical care.

To suggest this isn't the case is either you being blatantly deceptive or willfully ignorant given your chosen profession.

Burdizzo said:

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docb said:

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austinAG90 said:

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docb said:

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austinAG90 said:

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docb said:

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Aggie95 said:

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Long story short…daughter was involved in a car accident 2 years ago and was not at fault. She had some minor neck pain and headache so we went to the hospital as a precaution.
Days later we find out the driver had given expired auto insurance (State Farm). We later get a bill that I sent my auto insurance, also State Farm to cover the $900 hospital bill. Turns out they never did and they are coming after us daily. Do they do this to illegals that inundate hospitals?

Maybe I'm in the wrong and should just pay it, but since this was part of the accident, I don't feel responsible to pay out of my pocket.

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I think you should pay the hospital and then fight your insurance company. Why should the hospital do this stuff for free?

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Dumb

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So the doctor/hospital should eat the costs? If you think this then you are no better than the illegals not paying.

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It's the insurance company's responsibility, and to a fault the hospital for not following up on their billing. Has nothing to do with illegals, that is another issue. One X post @statefarm and a call to the Texas Insurance Dept will take care of it.

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Well at least y'all get a feeling of why health care costs are so high. I really can't think of a single other business that has to eat so much costs. The problem is with the insurance companies and the unfunded that drive this up. The reform needs to take place there. Honestly this is one of the main reasons I no longer pull trauma call at the hospital. In the end everyone likes to get paid for their services. I don't see how anyone could argue against that.

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My brother had emergency surgery to remove his gall bladder removed about 15 years ago. He is self-employed and self-in insured. When they gave home the bil, he said he was going to pay cash. They immediately cut his bill in half and even offered to let him pay in installments. I know of no other business model that offers a 50% cash discount.

I mentioned above I had a medical procedure that is now encountering billing snafus. The anesthesiologist sent me a bill and said I could pay it online. I went online to pay it, and amount due was different from (more than) the paper bill. I paid the paper bill amount. Two weeks later I got another bill from them for an even larger amount. Both of these bills differ from the statement of benefits I received from my insurance company. This procedure was pretty routine, and my carrier is fairly common (not like JimbobMutual of Mars), yet these asshats can't get their records straight. I have little sympathy for insurance companies or larger medical enterprises.

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Try 90 percent discount. First child with insurance we paid about 8 thousand. Seen my insurance agent had a child I called him see which insurance he used. Come to find out he paid cash before delivery. Didn't. Believe him went to hospital billing a 30,000 birth they will settle for 10 percent up front. They told me that's what the government pays on all bills is 10 percent so they settle for that. Same with doctor we ended up at 5 thousand not using insurance versus 8 thousand with insurance.

Aggie95 said:

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Long story short…daughter was involved in a car accident 2 years ago and was not at fault. She had some minor neck pain and headache so we went to the hospital as a precaution.
Days later we find out the driver had given expired auto insurance (State Farm). We later get a bill that I sent my auto insurance, also State Farm to cover the $900 hospital bill. Turns out they never did and they are coming after us daily. Do they do this to illegals that inundate hospitals?

Maybe I'm in the wrong and should just pay it, but since this was part of the accident, I don't feel responsible to pay out of my pocket.

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Also you knew there has been an outstanding balance for two years? Did you call the insurance company at any point in that 2 years to ask them why they did not pay? I'd say pay it (they will reduce it) or go to collections.

docb said:

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Aggie95 said:

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Long story short…daughter was involved in a car accident 2 years ago and was not at fault. She had some minor neck pain and headache so we went to the hospital as a precaution.
Days later we find out the driver had given expired auto insurance (State Farm). We later get a bill that I sent my auto insurance, also State Farm to cover the $900 hospital bill. Turns out they never did and they are coming after us daily. Do they do this to illegals that inundate hospitals?

Maybe I'm in the wrong and should just pay it, but since this was part of the accident, I don't feel responsible to pay out of my pocket.

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Also you knew there has been an outstanding balance for two years? Did you call the insurance company at any point in that 2 years to ask them why they did not pay? I'd say pay it (they will reduce it) or go to collections.

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Once again it's not his problem, regardless of the time passed. No one here is saying not pay what they actually owe but this should be covered under his auto insurance, end of story. Now those us who have insurance and pay for it question why when I can take my son in for an MRI on his shoulder and under insurance my part was $1200 but when I paid cash it was $600. If you got into medicine just to make money then maybe you should rethink your career choice.

And just how do you know what his auto insurance policy is or how it reads. Filing insurance claims is a courtesy. Ultimately it's up got who received the service to pay and that's why you can be turned over to collections. The fight is with the patient and the insurance company in the end. Otherwise pay or enjoy bad credit. It's about running a smart business and nothing to do about going into a given field for money.

The idea that collections starts dinging your credit as soon as they buy the debt is bogus. I've forced multiple medical providers to collections if their billing is predatory or was not properly disclosed prior to care being received.

Anyone can go to https://www.fairhealthconsumer.org/ and input their treatment/billing codes to get a second opinion on whether the amounts being billed are reasonable/excessive.

I have used this data to support more billing disputes than I can remember and have never once had my credit impacted.

docb said:

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And just how do you know what his auto insurance policy is or how it reads. Filing insurance claims is a courtesy. Ultimately it's up got who received the service to pay and that's why you can be turned over to collections. The fight is with the patient and the insurance company in the end. Otherwise pay or enjoy bad credit. It's about running a smart business and nothing to do about going into a given field for money.

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Courtesy ? Please tell us where you work so I never have to have the threat of you providing medical care. Run that business.

samurai_science said:

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Ignore the calls, it's what illegals do

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This. I used to help audit hospitals. The general public would be SHOCKED at the losses they suffer thanks in very large part to illegals and poor people who use them for anything and everything, only to never pay a single dime. And they can't turn them away.

Next time you step foot in any ER, just look around. But at least "Diversity is Our Strength", so we've got that goin for us.

Seamaster said:

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We're talking about two very different things:

1) P&C Auto Insurance
2) Health Insurance

They're very different.

In the original scenario posted, I still say the best bet is going back to State Farm, reference the previous claim you filed, explain that the hospital bill hasn't been paid and ask them why State Farm's Uninsured Motorist coverage or Med Pay coverage didn't respond to the claim.

Even though you're no longer with State Farm, they're contractually obliged to handle that claim as it occurred when you had an in-force policy.

There may be a valid reason why they didn't pay it. Maybe you only had liability insurance? But if you had Med Pay or Uninsured Motorist, I think you'd have coverage, less any applicable deductible.

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So in the case of someone injured in an automobile accident, how is it determined if health insurance or auto insurance provides coverage? I admit total ignorance in this.

Nice. What an upstanding Aggie you are.

El Gallo Blanco said:

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samurai_science said:

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Ignore the calls, it's what illegals do

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This. I used to help audit hospitals. The general public would be SHOCKED at the losses they suffer thanks in very large part to illegals and poor people who use them for anything and everything, only to never pay a single dime. And they can't turn them away.

Next time you step foot in any ER, just look around. But at least "Diversity is Our Strength", so we've got that goin for us.

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Both of my parents are on Medicare, and they both have had major health issues the last several years. I am absolutely floored by the MSRP the hospitals put on a bill and what Medicare ultimately pays. I've always figured the MSRP was an intentionally outrageous starting point used for negotiation purposes.

eric76 said:

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I think that insurance companies pay a small fraction of what is billed and the doctor/hospital has to write off much or all of the rest to accept that insurance. If you pay 25% of the amount billed, they are probably coming off far ahead.

One of my neighbors was bitten by a rattlesnake maybe three or four years go. His total hospital and air ambulance bills ran to something like $360,000. Without insurance, they whittled it down to around $10,000.

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This is the difference between "in-network" care and "out-of-network" care. Network provider contracts generally require the provider to accept the network reimbursement rate and not bill the patient for the excess. (IOW, the provider can charge the member whatever they want, but they've agreed with the payer to write off the charges above the contracted fee amount.) Therefore, one of the most important things a covered member absolutely MUST know is whether their provider is in-network for the services they're providing. If you go out-of-network, you're responsible for the amount that your insurance doesn't cover, and it's not because your insurance company is evil. Had a friend whose daughter insisted on going to an out-of-network provider for endometriosis treatment, and is on the hook for more than $400k. Who does he blame? Not his daughter for going out-of-network, not the provider for charging the exorbitant fees, but the insurance company.

torrid said:

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El Gallo Blanco said:

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samurai_science said:

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Ignore the calls, it's what illegals do

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This. I used to help audit hospitals. The general public would be SHOCKED at the losses they suffer thanks in very large part to illegals and poor people who use them for anything and everything, only to never pay a single dime. And they can't turn them away.

Next time you step foot in any ER, just look around. But at least "Diversity is Our Strength", so we've got that goin for us.

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Both of my parents are on Medicare, and they both have had major health issues the last several years. I am absolutely floored by the MSRP the hospitals put on a bill and what Medicare ultimately pays. I've always figured the MSRP was an intentionally outrageous starting point used for negotiation purposes.

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See my post above. Medicare reimbursement rates often barely cover the hospital's costs. To survive, hospitals have to charge much more (especially to private pay patients) and hope to get at least some of the higher charge out of the patient.

docb said:

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eric76 said:

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I think that insurance companies pay a small fraction of what is billed and the doctor/hospital has to write off much or all of the rest to accept that insurance. If you pay 25% of the amount billed, they are probably coming off far ahead.

One of my neighbors was bitten by a rattlesnake maybe three or four years go. His total hospital and air ambulance bills ran to something like $360,000. Without insurance, they whittled it down to around $10,000.

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Well I got paid $100 dollars from my last hospital case draining an abscess in a patient's neck that was about to threaten their airway. This was done on a Saturday. Saw them probably 4 times in the hospital and one follow up in the office. They had not met their deductible so insurance refused to pay and all my office could get out of the patient was $100. But oh well I most likely saved her life so there is some satisfaction in that I guess. Insurance companies suck but unfortunately a lot of people think just because they have it that it's going to take care of everything.

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In the late 1980s, I wrote a billing system for a radiology practice in Galveston.

One day in their office, they told me of one medicare supplemental insurance (whatever they had at the time) and they told me about one insurance company that they could never get to pay any claims so they quit sending them invoices and just wrote it off for those patients.

Not long before, a new office employee accidentally sent an invoice to that insurance company and they had received a check that day. It really surprised everyone since it was apparently the first time that insurance company ever paid the bill.

That convinced me of something I already knew -- I don't understand insurance.

Probably paid by a new employee at the insurer, no doubt.

I started my career at a medical billing company in Greenville back in 1988. Lots of wild stories from my time there, some even involving medical billing.

That's really awesome. I often think now of some things we had in the 70s that I wish I had kept. My penny book is like dark blue and it folds out and you put them in these cardboard cut outs.

G Martin 87 said:

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eric76 said:

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I think that insurance companies pay a small fraction of what is billed and the doctor/hospital has to write off much or all of the rest to accept that insurance. If you pay 25% of the amount billed, they are probably coming off far ahead.

One of my neighbors was bitten by a rattlesnake maybe three or four years go. His total hospital and air ambulance bills ran to something like $360,000. Without insurance, they whittled it down to around $10,000.

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This is the difference between "in-network" care and "out-of-network" care. Network provider contracts generally require the provider to accept the network reimbursement rate and not bill the patient for the excess. (IOW, the provider can charge the member whatever they want, but they've agreed with the payer to write off the charges above the contracted fee amount.) Therefore, one of the most important things a covered member absolutely MUST know is whether their provider is in-network for the services they're providing. If you go out-of-network, you're responsible for the amount that your insurance doesn't cover, and it's not because your insurance company is evil. Had a friend whose daughter insisted on going to an out-of-network provider for endometriosis treatment, and is on the hook for more than $400k. Who does he blame? Not his daughter for going out-of-network, not the provider for charging the exorbitant fees, but the insurance company.

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Fortunately, I have Medicare Supplemental Plan F which is no longer available for new Medicare people. Nothing is "out of network" unless the doctor/hospital doesn't take Medicare at all.

My younger brother is on an advantage plan. His nearest in-network doctor is about 100 miles away.

By the way, some years ago he didn't have any insurance and he worked out a deal with his doctor. As a farmer, my younger brother could often take off for a day without a problem. The doctor liked to go fishing but hated to go fishing alone. So the doctor treated my younger brother and his family for free and my younger brother went fishing with the doctor whenever the doctor wanted to go fishing.

By the way, I remember back when I was a third grader. The night before school started, I fell on some angle iron that my oldest brother had just been cut with a cutting torch seconds before and it was still red hot. I had a burn that went pretty much the length of my left forearm on the inside of the arm. We didn't have the money for hospital bills (for reasons that I don't want to go into here) so I never went to see a doctor. We just applied a burn ointment at home that my parents got from the pharmacy. It was like a half gallon jar of ointment and we went through a bit more than half of it while I was healing. The school nurse was shocked when she saw the burn.

It took years for the burn to fade much at all. When I was in the Corps and whipping out to upper classmen, I was often asked about my arm. It was still quite red some years later when working in Houston. By the time I was 40 or 50, it had faded enough to not be noticeable.

It can be confusing for sure. Luckily most of my surgical procedures are elective and we can send off a pre determination of benefits for the given procedure. We will file the insurance and accept assignment from the insurance company with the disclaimer that if the insurance does not pay the patient/guarantor is responsible. I truly want to minimize the amount of money that the patient is responsible for. They are paying for the insurance and they should use it. Sometimes it doesn't always work. For example if they used benefits after the predetermination was done we don't always know that.

The hospital is another story altogether because people don't know they are going to wind up in the emergency room. And they have no idea if the doctor they get is in network or not. But we still have to treat them regardless. I've have always done what is the absolute best for the patient and charged reasonable and fair fees but it is no guarantee that their insurance will cover something. And yes I have always expected to be paid at least something but it doesn't always work that way. Honestly it's the reason most doctors at some point in their career quit dealing with the hospital in some capacity after getting paid on maybe 10% of services done on those patients but we still shoulder 100% of the liability. It's a problem for sure. We used to take call as more of a community service until we get burned out for the reasons above. A lot of new doctors don't even deal with it.

El Gallo Blanco said:

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samurai_science said:

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Ignore the calls, it's what illegals do

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This. I used to help audit hospitals. The general public would be SHOCKED at the losses they suffer thanks in very large part to illegals and poor people who use them for anything and everything, only to never pay a single dime. And they can't turn them away.

Next time you step foot in any ER, just look around. But at least "Diversity is Our Strength", so we've got that goin for us.

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Indigent care. You should see what hospitals in the RGV have to write off annually. Shocking sums of money.

If in collections they sold it for pennies on the dollar. They will negotiate, I think.

samurai_science said:

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Ignore the calls, it's what illegals do

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Ignoring a medical bill issue, as the health care provider might eventually hand the debt off to a debt collection agency which then might make its way to being reported to all the major credit bureaus hitting your credit rating….is not a recommended strategy.

So OP, I know that post got blue starred a bunch b/c this is the TexAgs politics board but I recommend not following that advice in real life.

It would just so happen today I get a call from a provider that I had my annual physical with last December stating I owed them over $600 and insurance wouldnt pay it. Now this is after the nice young woman in billing prior to the physical said she called my insurance and everything was covered. I have a very good plan - I said no I don't this is what was told to me last year and go call the insurance. They called back later saying we are so sorry we sent the wrong code 4 times but we have it corrected and there is a zero balance. So as I stated previously make a few calls before you just pay it cause they said so

austinAG90 said:

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It would just so happen today I get a call from a provider that I had my annual physical with last December stating I owed them over $600 and insurance wouldnt pay it. Now this is after the nice young woman in billing prior to the physical said she called my insurance and everything was covered. I have a very good plan - I said no I don't this is what was told to me last year and go call the insurance. They called back later saying we are so sorry we sent the wrong code 4 times but we have it corrected and there is a zero balance. So as I stated previously make a few calls before you just pay it cause they said so

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I have never heard of an annual physical exam being not covered. Assuming this was a primary care physician practice, they likely do thousands of these every year and the office manager can rattle off the appropriate office visit code in her/his sleep. The explanation they gave you sounds ridiculous to me, unless the registration staff made a mistake and entered your appointment as something other than an office visit, or you have multiple very exotic chronic conditions or previous history that would justify using a higher complexity code. Glad you stuck to your guns.

I was on the phone with a billing specialist yesterday related to a colonoscopy I had in October. Understand, this was a repeat procedure I planned for three years ago at the recommendation of the doctors then who said I should get the exam periodically. This was not like I showed up at the emergency room for emergency service. We had three years to plan this.

Invoices paid by me so far:
-Clinic that did the procedure
-Anesthesiologist
-Diagnostic lab
I got these within 30 days of the procedure. I got a statement of benefits from my insurance company that matched up with all of these. So far, so good.

60 days later I get a second bill from the anesthesiologist for a different amount. I also get a second statement of benefits with differing amounts. I called the billing folks (they work for all three parties, so they can look at all these bills. She advised me I should have also gotten another bill from the clinic. I asked her why there was a second anesthesiologist bill, and she said there were two separate providers that bill separately for billing purposes. I then ask her why the clinic is sending another bill. Basically, I is one bill for the facility charge, and another bill for the doctor.

One procedure, five bills, several of which were from the same party.

I work in the consulting field, and we would never treat our clients this way.

Looks like you are the victim of a corporate type office. That's what happens when private equity get's involved in healthcare. It shifts from let's do what we need to do for the patient to let's see how much we can make off the patient. It is terrible and I fault our state board for allowing this to happen. It is also in dental and veterinary as well.

Would like to throw out we have Texas farm bureau and they've always treated us right