Sorta OT - bills from doctors

So I have this bill that I thought would be covered by my insurance but it turns out it's not.  I guess that's really my fault for not checking with my insurance company first.  I will not make that mistake again.

But the bill is for $243 and the appointment with the doctor literally did not last more than ten minutes.  So I'm thinking $243 is a bit excessive.  So I called the billing office to ask if they would offer me some sort of self-pay discount if I pay the amount in full.

Billing lady: Ma'am, you're not self-pay.  You have insurance.

Me: Yes, but my insurance will not cover any of the cost of this office visit.  Therefore I will be paying it myself.

Billing lady: We don't call that self-pay.  You have insurance, this is just not a covered benefit.

Me:  Right.  It's not covered, so you want me, myself, to pay it.  How is that not self-pay?

Billing lady: Ma'am, that's just our office policy.

Me: OK.  Well, if I can't get a self-pay discount, can I get some other kind of discount so that I can pay a reasonable amount for the service I received?

Billing lady: Ma'am, what I'm telling you is that you are not a self-pay patient because you have insurance.

Me: And what I am telling you is that I am not going to pay you $243.  Would you like to reduce it to a reasonable amount so that I will pay you something?

Billing lady: I don't have the authority to do that.

Me: Well, who does?

Billing lady: Linda.  But she's not here right now.  I guess I could talk to her later and then call you back....

Me:  OK.  Why don't you do that?

Billing lady: Well, OK.  But we don't normally offer any discounts if you're not a self-pay patients, and since you have insurance -

Me: Call me back after you talk to Linda, OK?

Argh!!!!!!

You may want to check with your insurance company, some have clauses that the provider's office must notify you in writing prior to rendering any non-covered services (when using an in-network provider) .

 

I wish you the best of luck.  I hate dealing with billing departments :)

ugh! That's so innane. Really? Semantics? Point is they're saying you owe money and gotta pay for it somehow. And they should be able to make some sort of plan to pay it off, or try to resubmit to the insurance under a different code or something. Hopefully they won't try to pawn you off onto Care Credit. It took me 4 years to pay off my dental implant with that company....

What they don't know, although I tried to tell them, is that I got no money and you cannot get blood from a stone.  Or is it blood from a turnip?  Whatever.  My credit already sucks and I would file bankruptcy except I can't even afford that.  And how does that make sense?  I mean, people fine bankruptcy because they got no money.  So how can attorneys charge so much for that?

If they want money, they will need to reduce the bill to something reasonable.  Otherwise, I cannot give them what I do not have.

Wow, what an idiot. Self pay is you paying yourself... doesn't matter insurance or not. Fight it! I hope they reduce it for you.

That's ridiculous! Maybe you should call tomorrow and talk to Linda yourself. That is an unreasonable amount of money for the amount of time he spent with you.

Lora

That is insanity! If you don't get anywhere with getting it reduced tell them that you will send $5.00 a month until it is paid off. Where it is a medical bill they have to accept it.

And what's really ridiculous is the fact that if it was covered by insurance, there would be a much cheaper agreed upon cost that the insurance would pay the doctor, so why don't they extend the same pricing to you as an individual?

Did the insurance write off anything or was it simply a non covered service?  Why did the insurance not pay for it?  Did you sign a paper that said you were aware it may be a non covered service?  If not, they may not be able to bill you anyway.  If the insurance didn't discount the services then they most definitely should give you a self pay discount.  I hope Linda does that for you.  I work in a billing dept and that is what we would do.  Good luck!

 

 

Oh, and by the way, as long as you are paying 'something' they usually accept that and don't hold it against you if you have to go back.  We have patients who have had surgery and pay 10 dollars a month...some have been paying for years.  But they faithfully send in that 10 bucks every month.  I have a bill about the same size that I'm paying $20 on.  That's all I can do.  We can only do what we can, right?