Hospital trying to force me to pay before procedure

[Anonymous]

Are hospitals now trying to make patients pay their deductible before medical procedures are performed?

I was scheduled for an outpatient procedure at a local Inova hospital and got a call from someone in "financial services" who tried to get me to pay what she thought my deductible would be before I had the procedure. Is this a thing now? I actually had met my deductible well before this procedure and she was incorrectly assuming my deductible would be over 1k. The person tried to get me to pay half of it days before my procedure and agree to a payment plan. What happened to having the procedure and the hospital submitting everything to insurance and then being billed? If I had fallen for this, I would have given them money I don't owe them. It also bothered me that when I checked in for my procedure, the person who checked me in wanted to discuss "the problem I had with paying my deductible". This has already happened to me with a dentist who pulled the same thing and it took them months to refund my money.
WTH?

[Anonymous]

Could have been a scam...I would call the doctors office and ask to speak to someone in billing. Then call your insurance and make sure it's covered etc.

[Anonymous]

Op here. The call was from someone at the hospital. The procedure is covered by my insurance. I don't have a problem paying the deductible, if there is one, but only after the hospital submits it to insurance and gets the correct amount. My deductible has been met, so they are way off.

[Anonymous]

Very common and becoming more common. Have a non-defensive conversation with them about why their calculation is incorrect, get the right amount, and pay it. Many places won't do the procedure without payment in advance. I don't blame them at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very common and becoming more common. Have a non-defensive conversation with them about why their calculation is incorrect, get the right amount, and pay it. Many places won't do the procedure without payment in advance. I don't blame them at all.

A person has no obligation to pay the hospital in advance.

[Anonymous]

Op here. The person I spoke to at the hospital stopped the conversation when I said my deductible had been met and her numbers were wrong. When I asked why they weren't waiting until the insurance was settled, she said something like it was fine if I'd rather be billed. It made no sense as she spent 90% of the conversation saying I needed to agree to payment in advance. I've had several medical procedures in Inova and non Inova hospitals in the last 5 years and this is the first time I've experienced it.

I won't be going back to this hospital.

[Anonymous]

It's normal many deadbeats skip out on the bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's normal many deadbeats skip out on the bill.

How is it normal to make someone pay upfront for a cost the person does not owe? I do not understand how this works.

[Anonymous]

Had this happen twice recently. Tell them you'll wait for the EOB after the procedure. Do not pay anything up front.

[Anonymous]

Their billing is the worst.... I had surgery at Inova Fairfax back in August. I was not called beforehand, but they did hound me to pay some estimated cost during my pre op check in. I had already called insurance and knew my copay was less than the amount on the paper... so I only authorized the amount of the copay. After the claim went through, they balance billed me, which is a huge no-no since they were in-network. It took several phone calls to get erased. Mind you, I was an employee at the time and I just couldn't believe they would try to pull that kind of crap on one of their own (though I wasn't surprised at all).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very common and becoming more common. Have a non-defensive conversation with them about why their calculation is incorrect, get the right amount, and pay it. Many places won't do the procedure without payment in advance. I don't blame them at all.

A person has no obligation to pay the hospital in advance.

I don't think that is true. It is perfectly legal and common for hospitals to require advance payment before rendering non-emergency services.

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/29/news/economy/hospitals-deductibles-payments-patients/

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-09-25/why-hospitals-want-patients-to-pay-upfront

[Anonymous]

The part I can't fathom here is that if I were to call and ask how much a procedure is going to cost me, I wouldn't be able to get a straight answer out of anybody. Gah, these hospitals!

[Anonymous]

Had the same thing with a Medstar hospital. I just refused because I can't prepay out of flexible spending. Once I told them that, they dropped the matter. I paid after the procedure (promptly).

[Anonymous]

Have had this happen for a root canal. They determine what my share *should* be and then as for credit card payment up front. I am assuming this is because one, it's expensive, and two, people are in general not paying bills timely or at all these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have had this happen for a root canal. They determine what my share *should* be and then as for credit card payment up front. I am assuming this is because one, it's expensive, and two, people are in general not paying bills timely or at all these days.

And three, the "health care" system is run by money-hungry dbags.