Hospitals (and similar) overbilling

[draggar]

I never realized how much this happens until recently.

My wife requires frequent doctor visits (hips) and every time she pays her copay at the counter and gets a receipt. For years she always got a bill saying she needed to pay the copay so she'd have to go back to the hospital and show the receipt just to get it cleared - sometimes it took multiple visits.

When I had my stay last year they billed me for several medications I didn't receive (or want). $700 for two doses of Flonaise (a nasal spray), $1500 for two nebulizer treatments. I called them to protest the charges and had to go though an audit and finally got it credited - of course not a penny of my copay got any credit. (I wonder if they told the insurance company of the overbilling?).

Now my dentist. I had to pay a $287 copay to have two fillings re-done. I just got a statement from my insurance - my copay should have only been $210 and I haven't received a reimbursement yet from them. I guess I'll have to cal them on Monday.

It's sad to think how many people don't pay attention to things like this and get over billed or billed multiple times for the same thing.

[Parrothead]

When my sister was in her accident, the hospital wanted (still wants, actually) to bill the family for her ride in the ambulance.

Her "ambulance" was my car.

[crashhelmet]

I get stuff like this all the time.

About 2 years ago, I had a couple surgeries to fix my nose (I had broken it 4 times and my septum and sinuses were all jacked as a result) and have my tonsils removed at the same time.

The anesthesiologist was billing me directly, instead of going through my insurance. I wasn't about to pay a $1500.00 bill and wait for the insurance company to reimburse me. Every time I received a bill from them, I contacted them and told them to bill my insurance company. I had already paid my co-pays and my deductibles for the surgeries. 9 months later, they send the bill to collections. The collections agency contacts me asking for me to pay the total amount due of $60.00.

I had a knee specialist try and bill me for an appointment they canceled and never rescheduled. Doctor had emergency surgery or sumthin and their schedulers were not in the office at the time.

With hospital bills, you have to really be careful. Some doctor you've never met can come in and check your chart while you're sleeping and you'll get a bill from them. They will also bill you for an entire pack of something when all they needed to use was one. I've got a couple stacks of those blue cloth towels that way. Go over your bill. You won't believe how much you're billed for that never gets used on you. I always ask for them. After all, I paid for them.

CH

[jedimaster91]

They will also bill you for an entire pack of something when all they needed to use was one.

I do believe that's an insurance thing. I'm a Nuc Med tech, and I have to charge patients for a whole 5mL vial of Kinevac when I might only need 0.5mL of the medication. And I can't use the rest of it on a different patient; I have to crack open a whole new vial. So I just basically wasted 4.5mL. And depending on what's in the pack, once it has been opened, it's no longer "clean" or "sterile" which means we can't use it anymore. It sucks, but due to the way billing works, it's what we have to do.

[Boozy]

When my sister was in her accident, the hospital wanted (still wants, actually) to bill the family for her ride in the ambulance.

Her "ambulance" was my car.

There's only one way to deal with that, then. Bill the hospital for your services.

[wolfie]

When my sister was in her accident, the hospital wanted (still wants, actually) to bill the family for her ride in the ambulance.

Her "ambulance" was my car.

I'd suggest starting out by appearing to request clarification (unit # of ambulance involved, qualifications of crew, etc.). Since it was your car, rather than an ambulance, they won't have this info. If they come up with a unit # and crew identification, it's a simple case of fraud.

[boringscreenname]

I'm pregnant, but getting my prenatal care through an outpatient clinic that's part of the hospital I plan to deliver at.

I have told them on three separate occasions that I have insurance, and given them all of my insurance information. Yet they keep sending me the bills, claiming their records state I have no insurance.

The latest bill was for $1064, and all that was done is I provided a urine sample, my weight and blood pressure were taken, the doctor listened to my baby's heartrate, and they took a vial of blood. I called them up again, and they are supposed to be forwarding the bills to my insurance company, but we'll see if that actually happens or if I continue receiving bills.

[daleduke17]

Wasn't Obama's big-super-mega-health-care-reform-of-super-happiness supposed to take care of all of these things with in ten minutes of it passing? You're all wrong, the hospital wasn't overcharging you, or was this before the USA became "enlightened" two weeks ago?

[Wingates_Hellsing]

Okay, where the hell did this come from?

No one's even brought up the health-care bill and everyone in this thread has demonstrated that they were over/wrongly billed. Not only are they all right, but you're getting distinctly snooty over crap we aren't even talking about.

[Rapscallion]

Wasn't Obama's big-super-mega-health-care-reform-of-super-happiness supposed to take care of all of these things with in ten minutes of it passing?

Last I heard, within ten minutes of it passing there were howls of outrage from the Republicans and legal moves to filibuster it into the next century. Can't exactly have the effects you claim if that happens.

Rapscallion

[blas87]

Maybe it makes me seem inept, but I take all of my statements to my parents' house and have my mom or dad look over them, even if they are just the ones they send when insurance is pending, to make sure I am not being double billed.

With the fact that my clinic is now charging "medical handling fees" for every single instrument they use on you, you NEED another pair of eyes to make sure they aren't slipping another one in there.

And by the by, ANY hospital or clinic's billing dept that is threatening you with collections needs to be drug out back and shot multiple times if insurance STILL hasn't decided what they will/won't cover yet. Sometimes it takes nearly a month or more before they will finish the pending process, and I've gotten nasty grams threatening collections just weeks after procedures.