Insurance RAWR!
I just have to rant for a minute.
Have you ever noticed that when you owe a Dr. or hospital money, they bill you every week and/or hound you over the phone till you pay up. But when they get an overpay on one of your accounts it just mysteriously sits there, and sits there and gets filed away in some phantom place that doesn't exist should you call in to question about the money they owe you?
I placed countless phone calls to Medical City Hospital when a change of insurance at the end of my pregnancy caused a mistake by the new insurance (they were supposed to transfer our already paid deductible to the new insurance...but instead we had $250 in charges "applied to deductible")
I informed them of the mistake and that Insurance would be reprocessing the claims involved as soon as this was straightened out. I was informed that I MUST at least make payments on those accounts until it was straightened out or they would be "forced" to turn us over to collections. Since this is an action I clearly did not want, I made payments as requested. This resulted in all but one of the accounts being paid off...and of course, that was not the account that the insurance still owed money to. UGH! So then the insurance FINALLY pays up and sends the money...yay..right? Sigh...this just started a new battle with the hospital. Now, because the account in question is paid off, they no longer have that account. It can only be accessed by the "regional office" which of course, has the same phone number (odd). So I hang up, call the "regional office" and am told that the account I am asking about doesn't exist. They only see one account and since I owe money, you guessed it...I better pay up. NO! Not gonna happen, cause see, really YOU owe me money after you transfer my credit balance over to the account that has a balance. Only about $30...but really, why would I pay you $221.00 ... when you already have $250 of that money? Infuriating. So then, suddenly she finds "the account" but says at first that yes, I am correct, it has the new payment on there, but it does not have a balance owing to me...it was simply paid in full in exactly the amount owed. $21.60. WHAT? That is an entirely different situation...not the account we were supposed to be discussing. AHHHHH.....
So in the end, I was so frustrated trying to "see what she is seeing" that I just asked for her to send me EVERY account they had for me in 2007 paid off or not in detail. Once I receive that it will be my fun job to sort through each account and all of the payments and figure out where the heck they put that money so I can get it transfered to the account that still has a balance!
I hate insurance sometimes. If I hadn't dealt with this stuff internally for a few years in the past, I would probably not even have caught this whole mess and would have paid more money than I owed to them. But I did catch it...and even though, at this point, my time invested is worth more than if I had just paid the silly overage...the point has to be made! I refuse to pay them more money that I don't owe! PERIOD!
RAWR!
Have you ever noticed that when you owe a Dr. or hospital money, they bill you every week and/or hound you over the phone till you pay up. But when they get an overpay on one of your accounts it just mysteriously sits there, and sits there and gets filed away in some phantom place that doesn't exist should you call in to question about the money they owe you?
I placed countless phone calls to Medical City Hospital when a change of insurance at the end of my pregnancy caused a mistake by the new insurance (they were supposed to transfer our already paid deductible to the new insurance...but instead we had $250 in charges "applied to deductible")
I informed them of the mistake and that Insurance would be reprocessing the claims involved as soon as this was straightened out. I was informed that I MUST at least make payments on those accounts until it was straightened out or they would be "forced" to turn us over to collections. Since this is an action I clearly did not want, I made payments as requested. This resulted in all but one of the accounts being paid off...and of course, that was not the account that the insurance still owed money to. UGH! So then the insurance FINALLY pays up and sends the money...yay..right? Sigh...this just started a new battle with the hospital. Now, because the account in question is paid off, they no longer have that account. It can only be accessed by the "regional office" which of course, has the same phone number (odd). So I hang up, call the "regional office" and am told that the account I am asking about doesn't exist. They only see one account and since I owe money, you guessed it...I better pay up. NO! Not gonna happen, cause see, really YOU owe me money after you transfer my credit balance over to the account that has a balance. Only about $30...but really, why would I pay you $221.00 ... when you already have $250 of that money? Infuriating. So then, suddenly she finds "the account" but says at first that yes, I am correct, it has the new payment on there, but it does not have a balance owing to me...it was simply paid in full in exactly the amount owed. $21.60. WHAT? That is an entirely different situation...not the account we were supposed to be discussing. AHHHHH.....
So in the end, I was so frustrated trying to "see what she is seeing" that I just asked for her to send me EVERY account they had for me in 2007 paid off or not in detail. Once I receive that it will be my fun job to sort through each account and all of the payments and figure out where the heck they put that money so I can get it transfered to the account that still has a balance!
I hate insurance sometimes. If I hadn't dealt with this stuff internally for a few years in the past, I would probably not even have caught this whole mess and would have paid more money than I owed to them. But I did catch it...and even though, at this point, my time invested is worth more than if I had just paid the silly overage...the point has to be made! I refuse to pay them more money that I don't owe! PERIOD!
RAWR!
Comments
I know what you mean about insurance. I do it for a living and I hate it! If you need help, let me know!!
Lets get together soon. Emma will be here most of the summer.
Cari