Re: Billing/Insurance...How long till last bill arrives?

[Guest guest]

I agree that the American health care/insurance system needs some revision,

but I've also found that the hospital and the insurance company that you're

dealing with make a big difference. I have had bad billing experiences in

the past as a result of incompetency and/or poor communication among a

hospital's staff and the insurance company. I've had a few insurance

companies that I would never go with again, such as Tufts, because their

customer service and billing departments could not handle communications

and billing procedures properly.

I've been very happy with Blue Cross/Blue Shield. I knew going in to the

myomectomy that I was expected to pay $250 for the procedure (the total

came to $10,564), and that's what the hospital billed me for. Blue

Cross/Blue Shield handled the rest, and when I called to find out how much

the total cost of the procedure was (just out of curiosity), a customer

service rep answered the phone promptly and cheerfully and promptly gave me

the info I requested.

I'm sorry you have to deal with this mess. I hope it gets straightened out

soon.

Cheryl

[Guest guest]

TxGenes:

The sad thing about paying off hospital bills is that you just never know when

the last bill will come. The system is indeed very fragmented, with different

departments billing for different procedures, separately. It took approximately

7 months before I received my last bill for services rendered for my myo. I was

ready to strangle somebody -anybody- because those bills just kept coming, even

though my insurance company told me they had paid up. It probably would have

taken longer than 7 months to finally close out my account if I didn't actively

involve myself by taking the initiative to get direct contact names for customer

service personnel with my insurance company and with the hospital billing

department.

One of the things that helped me was obtaining a full list of charges for my

stay in the hospital. The hospital should be able to provide you with a

detailed list of service charges during your hospital stay. And because this

list isn't always complete, in addition, you need to ask your insurance company

to provide you with information on amounts paid, dates paid, and invoice numbers

for bills paid. Get your pencil and paper ready, because while they are usually

open to giving you this information over the phone, they can be unreliable in

typing up something and forwarding it to you by mail. In my experience, there

were billing mistakes made on both sides - hospital AND insurance.

Hospital billing is always a headache. However, let no bill go unanswered.

Always follow up with EVERY bill you receive. If you let your frustration get

the better of you and you start to ignore the bills, you might get a not-so-nice

surprise when you have to run a credit check for a major purchase in the future.

Good luck!

Joyce