athena53
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- May 11, 2014
- Messages
- 7,377
DH has been treated for the last several months for a leg ulcer that was not healing on its own. This has involved weekly visits, then biweekly, to the local medical center. It's almost completely healed.
When the bills for the visits started to arrive and I dug into the details, it turned out that he was getting two bills on the same day for each visit- one for $225 and one for $670. Same date, same doctor, even the same treatment code. The one for $670 had two hospital logos on it- the local medical center and "Florida Hospital- Deland"- which exists but, to our knowledge, has no affiliation with our local hospital here in the Midwest.
So, I called the billing number, which was affiliated with the local hospital. The employee could not tell me why the name of the FL hospital was on some of the bills although both bills showed up in her system. They had two different Patient Numbers, though- identical except that one had a suffix of -1 and one had a suffix of -3.
Medicare has paid on these claims and they've been sent onto the Medicare Supplement insurer- but I'm still concerned. I'm well aware of the extent of Medicare fraud and figure that vigilant consumers are the first line of defense.
Would this bother you and would you pursue it? We have little to gain except liability for any copayment on the $670 charges if they turn out to be phony- but I'm more concerned about doing the right thing.
When the bills for the visits started to arrive and I dug into the details, it turned out that he was getting two bills on the same day for each visit- one for $225 and one for $670. Same date, same doctor, even the same treatment code. The one for $670 had two hospital logos on it- the local medical center and "Florida Hospital- Deland"- which exists but, to our knowledge, has no affiliation with our local hospital here in the Midwest.
So, I called the billing number, which was affiliated with the local hospital. The employee could not tell me why the name of the FL hospital was on some of the bills although both bills showed up in her system. They had two different Patient Numbers, though- identical except that one had a suffix of -1 and one had a suffix of -3.
Medicare has paid on these claims and they've been sent onto the Medicare Supplement insurer- but I'm still concerned. I'm well aware of the extent of Medicare fraud and figure that vigilant consumers are the first line of defense.
Would this bother you and would you pursue it? We have little to gain except liability for any copayment on the $670 charges if they turn out to be phony- but I'm more concerned about doing the right thing.