Hi My Lovelies! Well, here we are on another Monday and another week challenges. At least my weekend was pleasant. I hope yours was as well.
On to my latest challenge – medical billing issues 😡. So, every year I have an annual check-up separate from my gynecologist appt. It’s the only way to get my cholesterol medications renewed. This year was no exception. Called and stated the purpose of the appointment and was scheduled for mid-April. Went to said appointment, reiterated to the doctor the purpose of the appointment and also stated I had a secondary issue. Get through it all and get my blood drawn, as I do every year, and then scheduled a follow-up appointment to discuss blood work and secondary issue. Easy peasy.
Until three weeks later, when I get billed for the blood work because it wasn’t covered (what?). Call insurance to find out why the claim was denied, and they state that the health center needs to code the visit as a check-up and resubmit it. No problem, call the “conglomerate” known as MUSC – billing and ask them to recode the bill. They tell me they will look into it and send a letter once it’s been investigated. And by letter they mean a message on the patient portal site that you have to log into, not something direct like an actual letter or email 🙄.
In the meantime, I return for my follow-up and let the front desk know the issue. Their response? “That’s not the first time we’ve heard that today.” Not at all helpful. Then I’m called back where the doctor pulls my previous visit up on the computer and I notice that the notes say the last visit was a follow-up!?! I was so confused and thought maybe the notes were for this visit, so I let it lie, partially because this doctor was not particularly friendly. Push through appointment and ask the billing person what I can do about the coding issue. She says call the billing number because they can’t change/fix the records. I decide to wait for the letter and move forward from there
So said letter comes in stating that I provided no information to indicate the need to change the coding – not that they asked for any information and I still have to pay the bill (frustration level 😡😡😡). On Friday, I call the billing department back because not only would (could?) they not make the coding change, they also didn’t apply my co-pay from my recent visit and were charging me another $40 on top of the blood work bill. I get the co-pay issue straightened out, but they tell me that I have to call my doctor’s office and get them to change the notes so that it will be coded correctly. I tell them that they keep telling me to call the billing number, but I will try one more time, to get someone at the office to submit corrected notes. Called the doctor’s office immediately following the call to billing and the first thing they say is to call billing 🤦♀️. I once again explain the problem and they don’t know what to do so they send me to the office manager who has yet to call me back (frustration level 😡😡😡😡😡). For the record, I called at noon on Friday, so I don’t think it’s too much to expect a call back by Monday noon. So today, I called the patient advocate and got VM 🙄 and had to leave another VM. Let’s see if I get a response. I’m also waiting on hold with billing to dispute the charge so they can’t send it to collections, which would probably happen knowing my luck.
At this point, I am realizing that these large medical “conglomerates” create bigger problems in patient support than they solve. Had I known that the medical center I had chosen last year was moving in that direction, I would have never made and appointment there.
As for the actual bill, I can afford to pay it, but I am willing to die on this hill because the point of insurance is to cover such expenses. Otherwise, why have insurance? Also, the principal of it and all 😆. And, dammit, I am right!
Seriously, it shouldn’t be this hard to find someone to help.
If you have any other advice on how to handle this, I’m all ears because I am running out of patience with this whole thing.
And, at this point, I’ve been holding for billing for 32 minutes and counting (typed most of this post while waiting 😜). FRUSTRATION LEVEL 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬.
**Edited to Add: Ah a small amount of success. First (after about 40 minutes), the billing dept. answered. The nice customer service rep had another person review the issue and now it’s going to a compliance officer. Hopefully this will move this issue in the right direction 🤞. I have to say the billing department has been nothing but helpful in what they can do. It’s the disconnect from the doctor’s office that is the real problem.**
**Second edit: 4:38 pm and no return call from either the office manager or patient advocate. Color me shocked 😱!**
My Lemons My Lemonade 