Medical billing mistakes- whose job is it to resolve / fix?
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Anonymous
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Ive been dealing with very annoying medical billing issues from my internists office. Well, its actually through THEIR third party billing office, but THEY do not generate invoices. My doctors office does.
The issues have been (on my husbands account, once on my own) checks being stated in the description as "patient payment- $65.31" but then in the column where it subtracts it, it gets changed to "5.28". Just as example. Clearly not due to the "6" being left out. I caught that error after PORING over bills, statements, and the check in question. This mistake was NOT caught by either the doctors office, OR the billing office. And they made that same mistake twice, In other words, after showing they had made the error, I was sent the same bill with the same mistake a month later. The doctors office directed me to call the billinf service, the billing service directed me to call the doctors office. I had to spend hours of my time hunting this down and I got not one apology. Now its happened again. This time a check written for $102.91 was credited as "7.39" and when I called the doctors office, I was told that SHE was told by the billing office that "the rest of the check was credited elsewhere" and "she doesn't know why they do that this way, but $7.39 from that check was credited to the date of service in the line item. When I get invoices from the doctors office, they include charges for visits months ago for which I had already paid, but am told that not enough was collected from me at the time. So to figure out just how badly I am being messed with, I would now need to pore over the insurance records to verify they even correctly credited THEIR payments to my bill AND every payment I ever made. This does not seem right, that I should have to work this hard and get a shakedown every time I go to the office for what has so far ended up being their errors and not mine. I should add that I do all the bookkeeping and pre fpr the accountant for our business, and have for almost 20 years, so I dont get easily confused by numbers. So should the doctors office pass the buck to their billing office, yet present the patient with invoices and pressure them to pay where there are clear discrepancies? Should the patient have to be shaken down at the docs office and if they need it explained they have to call some third party in another state who does not have regular hours and who doesnt send documentation to the patient?? This just doesnt seem right to me. I get the docs office is clearly understaffed, but their understaffing should not turn into an externalized cost of doing business and making ME do all the work. |
Anonymous
| OP again- I have considered switching doctors, but I do like the doctor. |
Anonymous
Then you must be crazy, find a new doctor. |
Anonymous
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OP here. I posted here about this exact problem before and was told billing mistakes happen commonly, and others said they stick with doctors they like and deal with the mistakes. BUT, I dont think this level of mistakes is what they were talking about.
Just now I called to get the address for the billing service, and was told that all written correspondence goes through the doctors office. I said I cant make anymore undocumented phone calls to the billing office and spend all manner of time tracking down errors, I need to send one letter with everything in it to one place. She said then send it to us and we will forward it to them. I feel like sending a letter directly to the doctor and letting him know I want to leave purely because of this, its that much hassle. Here I am being treated for hypertension, and it would be nice to go there and feel peaceful and cared for, not improperly billed. Maybe I will see him one last time for my refill and make the break thereafter. Because this is just not fair. |
Anonymous
| But really, I am curios who is actually ultimately responsible for billing errors resolution. If a doctors office PAYS a third party to handle their billing, then that third party should handle the billing, which includes corresponding in accordance with what is required to resolve issues. I was told this billing company is "overseas". |
Anonymous
+1. Crappy service continues because people like you put up with it. |
Anonymous
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Your Dr. outsources his/her billing? That right there is all I would need to hear to change offices. Forget the billing errors!!
That said, are these personal checks or insurance checks that are being posted wrong? Get copies of the personal checks and then make them produce where else the other money was distributed |
Anonymous
I would deal directly with the doctor's office, calm but persistent. Ultimately, it's your money so your responsibility, which is why I would leave this people with a quickness. |
Anonymous
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OP here. Yes its a shame because this began to happen after I had already established a relationship with them. I think they switched to this new billing service, and that is when things started to happen. I thought with one incident it was just something that happened. One mistake. But now its happening again, and the level of concern being shown is less, not more.
I will make a switch. But not without telling the doctor what happened. Im not sure he knows what is going on. This doc was in Washingtonian Mag's top doctors, and came highly recommened by another doc of mine. He was great for a while. Now something has changed. |
Anonymous
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I dont think I can deal directly with the doctors office because despite always remaining calm and persistent, the person at the office, and there is only one, does not know te answers, the billing service does.
This is why it makes no sense. Its like a closed loop of bullshit. Bottom line: they arent getting my money till they demonstrate they have credited things as they should have. It could take a while. |
Anonymous
| Do get in touch with the doctor if you can. When I had a similar problem a few years ago and couldn't reach the doctor I had to call in the state consumer-protection agency because there was a lot of money involved. It was the billing office's fault, but the doctor himself was still responsible even though I tried to keep him out of it. |
Anonymous
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No suggestion....but I have a bill from an ER doctor that I paid, and was not credited. We argued back and forth. Now it is in collections, and my credit has been dinged.
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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OP, 1. Make an appointment to see the doctor. Tell him that his front office staff has been leading you up the garden path and that you cannot resolve these billing issues. Tell him that because of this you wish to leave the practice and will be forced to given them bad reviews! This will give them one last chance to scramble before you leave. The doctor who heads the practice is ultimately responsible, even though he or she is not trained to deal with these things and must be completely overwhelmed. But that is not a reason to not bother him, since YOU are now being bothered, see? Poor customer service has to be dealt with in this way. 2. Don't read the Washingtonian's Best List. They're all cronies that vote for and recommend each other! Completely meaningless. |
Anonymous
\ +1 I suppose you could ask them if you need to follow up and report them somewhere. Not sure who in the government would be handling this. They might be fudging $ for tax purposes, so the IRS might scare them. Search your state govt offices. Consumer affairs? Atty General? |