Do you follow up on your medical billings?

[Alan]

Well if it's happened to you and I maybe it's an "industry standard practice". I wouldn't be surprised somewhere buried deep in the fine print of laws that after X number of years they can sweep the money back into their coffers permanently. It's not like they don't know your address to send you a check or anything.

I think it must be industry practice since it has happened to me 3 times, the other 2 times being at GP offices.


Before we ER'ed we had dental insurance and the dentist's office was very good at sending out regular detailed summaries of charges, money paid by the insurance and money paid by me. I didn't mind the few occasions I was in credit 'cos they were usually the ones owed money, not me, and we did make regular visits.

 

[MichaelB]

I can not believe that the hospital would not notify me of overpayment and refund me the difference. If I had not looked at my quarterly health statement I would not have known, as BCBS certainly didn't know how much I paid the hospital. I wonder if this stuff goes on all the time, or if I was just the unfortunate one?

This has happened to us. I see it not as an industry practice but instead a choice by the service provider with full knowledge that some patients are being overcharged, and we do not return to providers that do this. Labcorp had a particularly odious practice for at least one year, even with insurance they demanded a credit card, signed, with an open amount to be determined and charged later if insurance did not pay their fee. They stopped after loads of bitter complaints channeled through the insurers.

In situation like this it helps to complain to the insurer. They will find this practice objectionable and may voice their desire to see the practice ended.

 

[Gatordoc50]

I would sit down and personally review all accounts with balances every couple of months. Most people with credit balances would call the office in the interim angry that we didn't send them their credit immediately. Funny, no one with a debit ever called. Not once in 27 years. And they represented 99% of the accounts with balances.

 

[Mulligan]

I would sit down and personally review all accounts with balances every couple of months. Most people with credit balances would call the office in the interim angry that we didn't send them their credit immediately. Funny, no one with a debit ever called. Not once in 27 years. And they represented 99% of the accounts with balances.

My complaint is based under the assumption that creditor knows he has the money and the recipient does not. That would be the equivalent to me anyways of the payer not being billed and not knowing they actually owed more money. I would think offices would send out billing notices, so I would believe it fair they send out notices of credits, too. But in the totality of it all, yes I would not question your overall conclusion. In fact, as a person who ultimately will need medical doctors to repair me, I hope none of these billing procedures, insurance hassles, and all other doctor paperwork are not introduced to medical students until they are about to graduate. As they might decide it is not worth the hassle to become a doctor and enter an unrelated field. FWIW- My complaint was never with the doctor, as that was a separate bill. In fact the doctors office was helpful in directing me to who I needed to call to get this straightened out, as the hospital did not have any phone number that I could use that directed me straight to the billing department.

 

[Gatordoc50]

My complaint is based under the assumption that creditor knows he has the money and the recipient does not. That would be the equivalent to me anyways of the payer not being billed and not knowing they actually owed more money. I would think offices would send out billing notices, so I would believe it fair they send out notices of credits, too. But in the totality of it all, yes I would not question your overall conclusion. In fact, as a person who ultimately will need medical doctors to repair me, I hope none of these billing procedures, insurance hassles, and all other doctor paperwork are not introduced to medical students until they are about to graduate. As they might decide it is not worth the hassle to become a doctor and enter an unrelated field. FWIW- My complaint was never with the doctor, as that was a separate bill. In fact the doctors office was helpful in directing me to who I needed to call to get this straightened out, as the hospital did not have any phone number that I could use that directed me straight to the billing department.

I understand. I'm just trying to give another POV. The existence of a credit on a ledger doesn't mean the provider is a thief anymore than a debit means the patient is a dirtbag.

 

[Alan]

My complaint is based under the assumption that creditor knows he has the money and the recipient does not. That would be the equivalent to me anyways of the payer not being billed and not knowing they actually owed more money. I would think offices would send out billing notices, so I would believe it fair they send out notices of credits, too. But in the totality of it all, yes I would not question your overall conclusion. In fact, as a person who ultimately will need medical doctors to repair me, I hope none of these billing procedures, insurance hassles, and all other doctor paperwork are not introduced to medical students until they are about to graduate. As they might decide it is not worth the hassle to become a doctor and enter an unrelated field. FWIW- My complaint was never with the doctor, as that was a separate bill. In fact the doctors office was helpful in directing me to who I needed to call to get this straightened out, as the hospital did not have any phone number that I could use that directed me straight to the billing department.

+1


As I said above, I liked the practice my dentist's office used in that I would get a monthly summary whenever there was a non-zero balance. Sometimes he owed me and it was okay that he didn't send me a refund because I was informed, and could choose to let it lie as a credit towards the next visit, which I always did.

 

[grasshopper]

Me I always get a receipt even it it means a few less trees. Than when BCBS sends me an email that a new EBO is online, print and staple to the receipt. Done.

A great idea to have the last EBO with total deductible paid to date.