Frustrated

by fireyone » Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:14 am

I had a delimma a while back with a billing error. A doctor was suppose to bill from a pain clinic location but accidently billed from her office. I spoke with her today after being harassed by a collection agency and she admits she was at fault. When doing internet billing (her first time) for a claim she accidently put in the wrong location which resulted in double co payments. Anyway now that she has owned up to the mistake and spoken to someone in the supervisors dept. for billing. I will not be sure if this will clear things up until Monday when the billing dept hopefully returns my call. How am I to handle this collection agency? They are demanding payment or threatening to report it to the credit bureaus. I am so tired of trying to clear up this matter that I almost feel like giving in and paying all the co-payments but my stubborness will not let me. After all it was "her" error that got me all these extra bills to begin with.

Total Comments: 9

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 01:43 am Post Subject:

How am I to handle this collection agency?

You probably can't truth is darn near everyone they talk to all day long is lying to them, and they think you are too...when you talk to billing you tell them to call right now and call of the collection dogs...get her name, direct phone number etc...tell her you intend to call the collection agency two hours after you hang up from her to MAKE sure this was done, and that if this is on your credit report you EXPECT them to clear it up asap...then call the collection agency (the billing people are the only ones that can call them off since they hired them)...and get that persons name number etc...find out if they talked with ''blah blah '' in billing and is everything done...oh while you have billing chick on the phone tell her you also want a letter from her dept. that say you NEVER owed this amount it was an internal error on their part, and that they are clearing this up TODAY...including they are contacting the collection agency...i'd also request a letter from the collection agency showing this was cleared up...(keep those letters in case your credit score was hit with this)...anyone of them refuses to do the same, you ask to speak to their supervisors, if the collection agency says they didn't get the call from the hospital tell them to make sure, then tear into the hospital also asking her who she talked to at the agency...actually i'd call the collection agency first and ask them who EXACTLY the hospital needs to talk to at their office (a name and number) to clear this up TODAY>..and give that to the billing person...do NOT allow this to continue one more day..

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 02:20 am Post Subject:

I contacted the original doctor that made this error and she is telling me she left a message on the supervisors answering service admitting fault. This was on Tuesday and she said she has not ehard back from them yet. She also left her cell phone number with them abut still no call. She is suppose to stop in on Monday to see if it is taken care of.
I am going to follow what you have posted. I have great credit and do not want a hit on it. The doc who made this mistake also left her cell number with me and said I had her permission to give it out to anyone who contacts me about this debt.
Problem is I do not see how this is going to be cleared up because it was already submitted through Highmark PPO so they can not resubmit the claims. (She submitted all claims together resulting in numerous double co pays). Isn't someone going to have to pay the hospitol the deductible since they will not be able to get it from Highmark. If so I think this Doctor should be held Liable.
At least I am not alone..she admitted to me she made this error with several of her clients. I can not talk to billing until Monday but I am going to call the collection agency tomorrow and inform them of this situation and ask if they reported it to the credit bureau. I will also ask for the name and number of who billing needs to speak with to call off the collection effort.
Gosh this has become such a headache. One minute it is suppose to be cleared up and the next a whole other ballgame. I know the lady in the billing dept. is going to argue with me upside down..I see it coming.

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 02:29 am Post Subject:

I know the lady in the billing dept. is going to argue with me upside down..I see it coming.

You tell her that you want to talk to her supervisor RIGHT NOW...then tell her supervisor that she's not listening to you...all she has to do is contact this doc, who will quickly clear this up and admit she made a mistake, and unless she wants you to become a GIANT
pain in HER bosses a** she will help you fix this!

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 02:39 am Post Subject:

LOL. I thought I was worked up about this. I looked on the letter just now and I can not contact anyone until Monday. I see at the bottom of the bill from the collection agency it is requesting that payments be made directly to the hospitol. Does this mean it is stilin the hospitols hands at this time?
Man I tell you if I find this on my credit report I will find a way to report them to Someone. Ther is four different places involved now the insurance company..who swears it should be taken care of, the hospitol that says unless I pay it will never be because the claim can not be resublitted, the doctor who screwed up and is now claiming fault and the pain clinic who wants me to just disregard the bills (I am not that stupid).
With all these places involved there has to be wires crosses somewhere. I will make those calls Monday and let you know if I get anywhere.

Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 11:47 am Post Subject:

Does this mean it is stilin the hospitols hands at this time?

Yes, but so is the correction dog pack that won't be called off by anyone but those who hired them..

Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 05:43 pm Post Subject:

Well I called the hospitol yesterday and they say they got word from my doctor about the mix up and has pulled the bills for now. They told me that the docotr was going to resubmit them but they would probaly be turned down since it would be considered double billing a caim.
I asked them if this was the case why hadn't the doctor done this i the beginning. I think maybe she had an arrangement with highmark to resubmit. I was also informed to contact my insurance comapny and see if they were reprocessing it. I can not see what reprocessing it is going to do. The eror was already made and it probaly will be turned down.
They said to wait and see. (as usual). I also called the collection agency who assures me this is not going to be turned into my report unless the hospitol gives the go ahead. They can not release me any forms saying I am not responsible and can not remove it from their system until the hospitol says so.
Yeah right...the y already told me they had and thats why I called the collection agency. So I called the hospitol back and they said they only update on Thursday and I said "well why did you tell me you already had instead of telling me the truth" She got a little smart and said "well it really isn;t going to matter because as of the 23 of the month we are now blling seperatley for facility fees." And I said "October is not January..Novemeber is not january...so why woudl that matter to me"
I got her drift but she is really aggravating me to no end and I can not speak with anyone else..she handles these things. I told her I hoped the hospitol has informed there hundreds of pain clinic patients of all the seperate fees before getting a surprise ater they get billed. I also said I would help get the information out there since I visit often. (I could see her eyes rolling).
I do not know who in their right mind that has co-pays will want to remain there when they can go somewhere else and pay one co-pay. Anyway I am calling the collection agency again on thursday,friday and so on...and the billin g dept. I am also waiting for highmark to call back and see what is up. I have honestly nevfer in my life been so AGGRAVATED.

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 12:52 am Post Subject:

They can not release me any forms saying I am not responsible and can not remove it from their system until the hospitol says so.

THEN the hospital needs to say so TODAY..

I have honestly nevfer in my life been so AGGRAVATED.

I know you are and don't blame you...try to turn it into more of a 'job', and try to disassociate yourself...in fact i'd tell them all, (and have), ''look this has now become my mission in life, and i will remain in your back pocket, totally screwing up every single day you go to work until this is straightened out to my satisfaction, so the way to make your day (and life) go better is to get this fixed in a hurry'' when they say something like, 'mrs. fire, i'm sorry this is our system blah blah blah'' be sure and end EVERY conversation with, ''ok i'll talk to you this afternoon (if you called in the morning or) tomorrow (if it's afternoon)" AND DO IT!! EVERY SINGLE DAY ATLEAST ONCE A DAY, TWICE IF POSSIBLE! you'd be surprised how quickly people get things done just to get you the h*** out of their lives! :lol: hang in there...you'll win...

Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 04:48 pm Post Subject:

I asked the hospitol to send me something from them saying that this was a billing error and I was not responsible for the extra payments. They also said that they could not do this because soneone still has to pay.
See when this lady billed using her office code instaed of the pain clinics where I was seen it resulted it two seperate bills..one for the clinic and one for her..which resulted in two co-pays. So the hospitol is out of $20 per visit because the insurance applied a deductible to both.
Had she did the billing under the pain clinic code,instead of her own like she was suppose to, then it would have been one co-pay which I paid at the time opf the appointments.
They hosptiol wants that extra money they say they can not just write it off..someone has to pay.I do not feel it should be me. They are trying to rebill the insurance but I doubt this works since they were already billed and paid this claim. I do not see how this will be resolved unless I do pay. My feeling is the doctor should turn the co-payments I paid her over to the hospitol since she is the one who made the boo boo. I should have thought when she had me make the check out directly to her but when I asked why I wasn't paying it to the pain clinic she said they would recognize my payment because she would tell them I had satisfied it by paying her.
I am still waitng for highmark to call...yeah and here I thought I might be bored this week.

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 01:04 pm Post Subject:

My feeling is the doctor should turn the co-payments I paid her over to the hospitol since she is the one who made the boo boo. I should have thought when she had me make the check out directly to her but when I asked why I wasn't paying it to the pain clinic she said they would recognize my payment because she would tell them I had satisfied it by paying her.

Well ask her about it!

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