Re: Refund issue

[Guest guest]

Simply leave as credit balance on the account.

To: Sent: Wed, January 27, 2010 6:04:54 PMSubject: Refund issue

I've got a weird minor billing issue, wondering if anyone has ideas for handling the situation. Patient has Medicare and, she reports to me, one supplemental policy. However, Medicare crosses over her claims to TWO supplemental policies, and BOTH of them pay her deductible and 20%. Patient swears that she only knows about and pays for one of them. This means that I have to send the patient a check for every claim (although I will save a couple up before sending it). Despite calling, I haven't been able to get either supplemental company to stop paying me. I'm tired of writing checks all the time....She' s in fairly frequently. Help? Haresch

[Guest guest]

Make SURE you have detailed accounting of everything, dates, check amounts, check numbers, dates and content of phone calls/letters regarding the issue. Talk to your accountant. Keep a paper trail. Letter to patient, letter to Medicare, letter to the addresses you have for the supplementals. Inform state insurance commissioner in writing. Consider putting the money into an escrow account, until the matter is resolved. Likely someone is going to be looking for that money and find the trail ends with you. Without detailed documentation, who knows what mistaken foolishness may arise. When I had my dental practice, I had a similar occurrence, patient with primary and secondary then suddenly a tertiary. Luckily it involved just a few payments when my business assistant noticed a large credit accumulating on the account. It resolved quickly for us. My accountant advised as above. My accountant said it happened to a physician who was smeared with fraud accusations when it was really a matter of error on the part of the ins payers that went on for a while, and a bit of sloppy record keeping on the part of the doc. Maybe that's a scary story accountants tell their clients to scare us into being tidy with accounts and records. Put the fear of God in me. Much easier with electronic accounting, these days.Good luck with this extra bit of paperwork. Not fair that it adds to your burden. KathleenSimply leave as credit balance on the account. From: newfloc <newfloc>To: Sent: Wed, January 27, 2010 6:04:54 PMSubject: Refund issue I've got a weird minor billing issue, wondering if anyone has ideas for handling the situation. Patient has Medicare and, she reports to me, one supplemental policy. However, Medicare crosses over her claims to TWO supplemental policies, and BOTH of them pay her deductible and 20%. Patient swears that she only knows about and pays for one of them. This means that I have to send the patient a check for every claim (although I will save a couple up before sending it). Despite calling, I haven't been able to get either supplemental company to stop paying me. I'm tired of writing checks all the time....She' s in fairly frequently. Help? Haresch