A Users Guide for Health Care Billing
Taking care of the billing for health care can be a perplexing and frustrating experience for the inexperienced. It is much different than paying a vendor for a service or even resolving problems with a defective product. The problem is that most people never got the users guide. I was able purchase the Guide below for only 23 easy, weekly installment payments. I wish I had bought it before.
Users Guide
Most of the dissonance that many experience with health care bills comes from not understanding the health care billing process.
1st When you receive any correspondence in the mail from a health care entity, be glad. Do not feel a pain in your gut and don't let that vein in your forehead pop out. You will open it and it will undoubtedly be some sort of bill. This is your first mistake. All inquiries come in the form of a bill. The billing department is either confused or they have a question about something. It is against the custom to call you and ask a question. I know that to your untrained eyes it looks like a bill but it is not. I repeat, it looks like a bill that the other vendors send but it is not. It is a cry for help.
2nd What to do about the recent letter(“bill”)? It is best to let the confusion subside. The best way to do this is to let it age. The more confusing the billing looks, the more it needs to age. Stick it on top of the laundry basket. Just as Doctors practice Medicine, billing entities practice billing. Be patient.
For the uninitiated, the first impulse is to call and try to help straighten it out. Don't! You can only make matters worse. Who would you call that knows what is going on anyway?
The next thing that will happen is that they will send you more “bills”. If they are identical to the previous one, it means they are on the right track and you can move to the 3rd step. Sadly, this is usually not the case. The doctor, hospital, testing lab and insurance company etc will answer each others questions if you can just be patient and keep aging the bills. When the “final, final” bill comes, then you can try to talk to a person. But if you are patient, the collection agency will call you to ask for information.
3rd Intervention. If the bills are consistent, then you can contact them to correct the billing accuracy if it is needed. This is the time to tell them that you had a colonoscopy, not plastic surgery. This is also a good time to clear up who gets paid for what. If these facts are in order, then it is time to talk about the suggested bill. They never know what exactly to charge so they always charge real high, knowing the real price is somewhere between zero and infinity. This negotiation process is a lost art in our culture. Haggling is still a part of everyday life Europe, Mexico and other places. It is a fascinating opportunity to practice up on your medical vocabulary and get to know the people at the insurance company / collection agency. In the end, you will be happy to pay some reduced amount.
So many bills, so many offices, agencies and entities to pay.
