Can I hire someone to handle filing claims for my health insurance?
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Anonymous
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Increasingly, medical providers don't handle insurance claims for patients — they either make you do it, or they give you a claim form to file.
I do not have the time or capacity in my life to find claim forms, file them, keep track of what is paid, and call insurance companies to dispute things. This is not unlike some administrative responsibilities that happen at my job. If this were a work thing, I would work to hire a contractor or consultant to handle this for me. We all don't have time to deal with this paperwork and a dedicated contractor can do it more efficiently than me. I know some platinum health insurance plans have representatives that will do this for you. Is there a way to pay for it? To hire someone to do it directly? I would like to be able to forward the claim forms and receipts I get to someone, and then I want money to appear in my account without me having to think about it again. (Abolish insurance company middlemen, abolish BS paperwork, structure the medical market correctly. But until then how can I make my life easier?) |
Anonymous
| Great question! |
Anonymous
| Even if you could, you probably wouldn’t want to. Think about it for a minute. |
Anonymous
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I'd want to!
It is just another contracting service. If they do a good job they'll get a good rep and if not they'll get a bad rep. |
Anonymous
| NP but I would also pay good money for this service. The OP is right; it’s a mental load and time suck, and if you don’t put in the time tracking and disputing, you get screwed. (I am not on Kaiser but this is why I can see the argument for it- you are not in an adversarial relationship with your insurer; instead the health care prover and insurer are the same and thus have aligned interests.) |
Anonymous
| Does your employer use an insurance broker? Our broker will do this for our employees. |
Anonymous
| Health insurers make submitting claims miserable so people like you don't bother. I'm fortunate to have one that lets me submit them online, BCBS makes you mail them in! |
Anonymous
| I would check with an accountant or financial advisor (family office-type). If they’re handling enough net worth, I’ve heard some will do this for clients. |
Anonymous
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I am actually really good at this!
I have a chronic illness and so I have been filling paperwork and checking EOBs and tracking deductibles and max OOPs and allowable amounts for my entire adult life. Maybe I should start a side hustle… |
Anonymous
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I had a problem years ago with piles of unfiled claims, keeping track, etc. I contacted Potomac Concierge and they hooked me up with a retired government employee, coincidentally from the same agency as me, who took care of everything.
She was fabulous, and saved me considerable sums from services I had paid for and hadn't claimed. Regretfully she retired from this gig as well, and the company informed me they no longer had anyone who could do this. This would be a great business opportunity for someone who is good at this sort of thing! If you are, perhaps you could get a start by pitching such a service to a concierge company. |
Anonymous
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My sister in law does this for her parents who have a lot of medical expenses, for a sibling while the sibling was going through cancer treatments for over a year, and another relative whose child needed a lot of treatment. It takes her hours and hours some weeks. Luckily she stays at home but now her parents pay her for her time. She has gotten really good at it - writing appeals, being willing to wait on hold as she is doing other things, filing claims, calling hospital billing offices to dispute billing codes and claims, etc.
I tell her she should really start a business because she is so good at it. She has saved her family so much money. |
Anonymous
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Just spent two days filing for my own flexible spending money back. How does anyone have time to do this? It it can be done online but the software is clumsy and it takes hours to do what should take 15 minutes.
It’s better than the days when they pretended they never got what we faxed in and didn’t reimburse it. |
Anonymous
Hours? Takes a couple of minutes. |
Anonymous
Oh the privilege of health. |
Anonymous
Taking hours and hours to e-file claims is not normal and you didn't mention anything about health issues in your first post. Here's a tip, file the claims as they come in so you're not spending Christmas week handling it. |