CPT: Paying Medical Bills

MeganWorden · November 2013

What kind of medical bill payer are you?

(I am honestly curious what you ladies do because I have been fighting an all out war with my insurance and medical offices because of over charges on my medical bills. So really this is a PSA to always double and triple check the amounts before you pay them! So far I have saved myself over $4,000)

MeganWorden · November 2013

You can guess which one I am :-O

Kismc · November 2013

SS- Canadian: so the only things we've paid for are parking fees for our hospital appointments

EtA: there will be other costs at the end such as rooming at the hospital will be about $200 per day

monkeybutt61612 · November 2013

So far, I haven't recieved any oop bills, but if I did I sure as shit would call everyone involved before I paid a cent. My hospital billed my insurance 48k for my section and they paid out like 20. Why on earth would I not question everything.

MeganWorden · November 2013

Kismc said:

SS- Canadian: so the only things we've paid for are parking fees for our hospital appointments EtA: there will be other costs at the end such as rooming at the hospital will be about $200 per day

Aw yes I forgot you Canadians and other ladies that do not have to deal with the US healthcare system. I am envious! =P~

goldenB · November 2013

SS - Canadian as well, so the only thing I pay for is dental, chiro, massage therapist etc. (I only use dental). My OB and medical ultrasounds are free.

For delivery we will be paying for a private room which is approximately $300/night (the other options were $250 for semi-private and it's free if I want to share the room with 4 other mamas after delivery).

Roses87 · November 2013

I voted SS. My insurance is awesome right now! (Thats a differnent story come Jan 1st). Since I have had this insurance I have a $25 copay at appointments. For my prenatal care I only had to pay that copay once and have not had any bills since. My husband and I are pretty healthy ppl and have not had any hospital bills yet but for those visits we only have a $100 copay so I feel if the bill would be more than that I would catch it and be making a phone call. I have been to triage a couple times so far and I know I should have a copay for that but I have yet to receive it. In the past when I was on my parent insurance which was very blue cross ( I hated it) I constantly got bills that were incorrect and I wouldn't pay them and would just continue to call everytime I received a bill until it was corrected. I hated blue cross and I hope I never have to deal with them again.

Deblondie1 · November 2013

As much as people bitch about the military, the insurance really is prime. I have a million dollar baby that I've probably only paid $60 for and that was for asthma meds because the pharmacy didn't take Ticare. They covered every specialist and visit we had after she left the NICU.

I haven't seen a single bill from this pregnancy. And I've been in and out of L&D, get ultrasounds and NSTs every other week, and see the dr every other week.

I told H the other night we are incredibly insulated being in the military, the concept of insurance premiums and co-pays is completely foreign to us both.

dland0201 · November 2013

So far I've only paid for 2 genetic tests. But I will have a $1000 a night copay for my hospital stay that I am not looking forward to.

monkeybutt61612 · November 2013

dland0201 said:
So far I've only paid for 2 genetic tests. But I will have a $1000 a night copay for my hospital stay that I am not looking forward to.

Jesus christ. You might as well have the baby then stay at The Four Seasons

Rushley · November 2013

I'm a Canadian girl too- we're very fortunate that DH's benefit package covers everything including massages and chiropractor which have come in handy this pregnancy.

dland0201 · November 2013

monkeybutt61612 said:

So far I've only paid for 2 genetic tests. But I will have a $1000 a night copay for my hospital stay that I am not looking forward to.
Jesus christ. You might as well have the baby then stay at The Four Seasons

I know right?!?! I do have an Aflac hospital plan that will pay me $500 each of those days so I will end up only paying half but still a lot to pay.

peanutmuse · November 2013

I'm with you, @MeganWorden. Bust out the magnifying glass. I got a bill a few weeks ago for something I had already paid, and just about lost my shit.

ETA: I keep everything in a spreadsheet too.

ETA2: After having my blood type checked not once, not twice, but three times this year, I also scrutinize every single lab requisition now. The second two were done without requisitions, so when they take my blood at the hospital, I ask them what it's for. And if it's to check blood type (or something else they don't need because they already have access to the info), I tell them no way. Check my medical records first, people.

Shannahbee · November 2013

I'm another SS Canadian... My only cost would be the private room fee others have mentioned, except my husband's benefits at work pay for it so we don't even have that

.
I definitely don't get a free breast pump through my insurance though... WTF?! Haha.

MeganWorden · November 2013

peanutmuse said:

I'm with you, @MeganWorden. Bust out the magnifying glass. I got a bill a few weeks ago for something I had already paid, and just about lost my shit.

ETA: I keep everything in a spreadsheet too.

Yup I have a spread sheet and I keep a binder with all of the invoices they send me, a log for when and how long I am on the phone with them and a print out from the website breaking down exactly what and how the bill is paid. I feel like I flip my shit every time I receive a bill because literally 4 of 5 that come in over charge me by at least $100.

PreDempsey · November 2013

My insurance is also the bomb.com. We had some enrollment issues after we got married, so for a few early appointments I got a bill and nearly threw up in my lap. We paid a 10 copay for the initial OB appt and that's been all so far.

OSUWifey09 · November 2013

I'm also on Tricare now. Haven't seen a single bill and have had every ultrasound and MFM appointment covered. I didn't see a bill from my loss, either, but I also had my son at a military hospital that time...I'll be at a civilian hospital this time, so need to make sure they will cover. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

OSUWifey09 · November 2013

But with my first, I was on BCBS. I paid the universal fee and only had one co-pay, but I had to pay OOP for a couple of tests and for part of the hospital stay.

grml14 · November 2013

I'm lucky (and unlucky enough) to have medicaid, which means I haven't had a single co-pay or bill sent to me. Benefit of being right above the line of poverty I guess.

ChuggingWater · November 2013

I seriously have to call my insurances and the billing department (at whatever provider) about EVERY.SINGLE.BILL I receive.

Someone always f*cks something else.

This is what I did all day yesterday, and am on hold right now.

Jen4033 · November 2013

Voted SS & here's why. NORMALLY I have been the type to just wait for the bill & pay it when it comes. Really only questioning if something looked obviously abnormal. I don't typically go to the Dr much (outside of pregnancy) and I don't pay anything for my prenatal care with my insurance.

The bills I have been needing to scan over with a fine tooth comb are my chiropractor appts. it seemed like every bill was different, but every visit was the same procedures done. It just complicated things more that they started out as Auto insurance claims, but then my auto ins was trying to deny me coverage. (That was a huge mess I am glad that part is behind me!) I swear they had to reprocess some claims 4 TIMES to get it right.

In September my ins sent me a letter letting me know that since Feb, they had apparently billed my chiro appts wrong where they should have applied towards my deductible instead of asking me for a co-pay. The letter was not only sent to my maiden name (which I have not been since 2010 & they have my correct name on everything else) but also stated those incorrect claims were going to be reprocessed.

I called a week ago or so because I still have not received a new explanation of benefits form for these appts and I have also not received any adjusted bill that I was expecting. According to the system, they hadn't reprocessed them at all yet.

So now I need to call (again) to the special cases rep who handled my auto insurance claims. Just a big ol mess I really should never have had to deal with if they had just done things correctly.

MeganWorden · November 2013

ChuggingWater said:

I seriously have to call my insurances and the billing department (at whatever provider) about EVERY.SINGLE.BILL I receive.

Someone always f*cks something else.

This is what I did all day yesterday, and am on hold right now.

I am right there with you. I have United Health and they suck ass!

Deblondie1 · November 2013

I'm also on Tricare now. Haven't seen a single bill and have had every ultrasound and MFM appointment covered. I didn't see a bill from my loss, either, but I also had my son at a military hospital that time...I'll be at a civilian hospital this time, so need to make sure they will cover. I'm pretty sure I'll be fine.

If you are delivering at a civilian hospital because the military hospital can't support the delivery or because there is no military hospital within like 25mi that can support the delivery, you should be fine. They are really good about covering that kind of thing, even in an emergency situation (like my delivery with DD).

cnctf · November 2013

For my regular prenatal visits and ultrasounds I dont pay OOP. If there is any out of the ordinary visits of labs, I pay my copay. I recently was charged two copays for labs that was done by the perinatologist, but not for the visit. Long story, I called the perinatologist's office and the nurse said I shouldnt have been charged the labs. So they called the billing dept and got that removed. After that, I check my bill more thoroughly.

blue_elle · November 2013

I've been fighting a $180 lab bill for over 3 months. The ob's office forgot to get pre-auth so insurance denied. They'll pay it if the office submits a retro-auth request, but they seem to be too incompetent to fill out the form.

It's not much money, it just pisses me off they can't seem to take 10 min. to fix their oversight.

twobluelines · November 2013

I am another special Canadian snowflake. We have semi-private coverage and are forking out the extra $100 a night to get a private room... totally worth it as far as I am concerned.

moosebaby2011 · November 2013

My insurance is really good, but we do have a deductible (which my DH's employer pays provided we can document that it is a covered expense) so I read through every bill to make sure that it makes sense. Usually it does. I've only had to call once because I got a bill for something I had already paid, but other than that I haven't had any problems.

ChuggingWater · November 2013

BIG SURPRISE. FIVE months later, and they still have not finalized my e. coli bill.

SunflowersBride · November 2013

ChuggingWater said:

I seriously have to call my insurances and the billing department (at whatever provider) about EVERY.SINGLE.BILL I receive.

Someone always f*cks something else.

This is what I did all day yesterday, and am on hold right now.

This is me as well. I just received a bill for two pregnancy-related tests from back in June. I already paid my $500 deductible + my $10 copay for my first OB visit, so I'm not sure why I'm getting a lab bill (and also why I'm just receiving it in November). I tried to call my insurance company over the weekend and have to call back this week.

I have gotten so screwed with lab bills in the past (I received one fairly recently relating to an old pap smear where they sent it to Lab B which isn't covered, but if it had been sent to Lab A it would have been. I had no choice in the matter, so I was just screwed. This shit pisses me off so much, I scrutinize everything now).

ac1259 · November 2013

Well DHs insurance is great, mine wasn't bad either but when I quit we switched. We've paid our deductible ($400 family) and I pay 1 copay at my first pregnancy appointment and thats it. Everything else is covered. DH looks closely at all bills we receive, the only thing I've ever fought was with my old insurance about whether or not an appointment was "emergent". Apparently they didn't code things right and an ectopic pregnancy and EKG changes during pregnancy weren't emergent...I totally won that fight!

hurricanekb · November 2013

I feel like I overpay every single time I get a bill. But I still pay it. I don't understand most of insurance. I get it, I'm dumb for not looking into things more.

LittleMommaBlueHen · November 2013

I check EOBs online to see what my insurance company is saying they cover, versus what the care provider bills me, versus what the EOB booklet says it should cost. I have saved my family about $800 over the past year because I caught a ridiculous bill that was the result of a computer glitch at the insurance end.

ChuggingWater · November 2013

I panic at EOBs.

MeganWorden · November 2013

ChuggingWater said:

I panic at EOBs.

I get really panicky too but I force myself to deal with it.

KatelynEA90 · November 2013

Generally, I just look over it to make sure everything is in line. I've only had two bills for ultrasounds I had out of office. I keep them and double check when I receive new ones to make sure they aren't doubles. I also mark when I paid and how.
I did go over my ER bill very closely. I will probably do this with my hospital bills after delivery too.

fredtheredhead2 · November 2013

I voted SS. We are on Tricare Prime and don't pay anything for our medical care. The only thing we pay right now is our prescription copays, since we are not near a military hospital/pharmacy.

Amarantheansea · November 2013

No insurance:( Can't be insured yet because I'm Canadian living in the us married to an American(immigration issues)! We pay for everything! So far we have shelled out about 5 grand for prenatal care, and are expecting another 3-5 grand for L&D. (This is bare bones at the cheapest hospital and if everything goes smoothly)...Not to mention all of our legal/filing fees for immigration(yeah that was about 12 grand)! We be f$*ked! Sigh*** I miss Canadian healthcare!

kteeswei · November 2013

I'm in the US but feel super lucky with a "cadillac" insurance plan that covers all costs 100% without copays or deductibles or employee contributions (to be on the plan) necessary. We pay nothing into it for now, but when MH becomes an attending (2015) we will start paying for the coverage.

HappyDoc · November 2013

I am self-employed, and therefore purchase my own health insurance. This being the case, I picked the best plan I could get through BCBS. I don't have a deductible, and don't pay anything for prenatal care or delivery. I do pay a 10% copay for lab work and for ultrasounds at my MFM office. So far I have had 4 ultrasounds, and 6 visits to the lab, and have still only had to pay around $80.

I do read over my EOB's, but have yet to find an error.

CeeJC121013 · November 2013

You mamas that study your bills and know your plans are very wise!

Last time, I thought everything was fine and paid our $25 copay at the time until about a year after ds'a birth I got a bill for $10,000. Yes, $10,000!! A year later, both my and DH's insurance got into an argument about who should pay for what- both claiming that the other insurance should have paid for it-- so the hospital sent me the bill!

After months and months of back and forth, we finally got it resolved to where I was back down to just paying the copay. It was a nightmare! Apparently us patients have strict time limits on filing a claim, but insurance companies can go back up to 2 years back and change their minds!

FormerlyKrista555 · November 2013

My husband is a disabled, retired veteran so we are really lucky in the realm of medical expenses. For our entire family, we pay $115 every 3 months. It covers everything minus $30 co-pays, and I've only paid one co-pay for this pregnancy on my first visit. It was the same thing with my last babies to: $30 total (including delivery) for Madelyn and $30 total for Liam.

I don't take lightly how awesome this is.

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