re: Medical Billing has gone mad

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Then to add to it, everything at the hospital is supposed to be 100% covered.

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You must have went to the ER that is at the hospital, but not run by the hospital and outsourced to a 3rd party. The notice in fine print on the wall should have told you.

That is another complaint about medical billing. There is no limit on who is billing who. Once a patient comes in everybody is getting a piece of the action and you could expect a bill from anyone.

XYZ hospital charging its facility fees
ABC Doctor Group who manages the ER Doctors charges their fees
123 Lab Services charges your blood tests
Local Imaging Group charges for XRays and other imaging
Pharmacy charges for Medicine
Anesthesiologists charging for their services
Specialist on call gets a charge
And a few others.

What sucks is some doctors offices are switching to the same model, where they have multiple businesses with to the same location so it can be all billed separately from different entities. So that a lab test or imaging request that could have been coded under one doctor’s visit is now billed out by 3 or 4 providers meaning you are no longer getting services under your single copay. Now you are paying out of pocket towards your annual deductible.

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My local doesn’t even ask for an ID when I make a withdrawal. Perhaps you should shop around.

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What’s your bank? Also can I get your name? You know uh just in case they ask who sent me

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I know HIPPA scares the everliving hell out of medical companies. But there is no way, no how, the intention of HIPPA would be to make it a PITA to make a payment.

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Government policies always have unintended consequences

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Much of this is deemed cosmetic.

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Psoriasis that gets so bad it affects my daily life? Cosmetic. Minor psoritic arthritis that means I can't touch my toes but has no other affect, I get the good medication covered.

It's nuts.

Holy shite that’s ridiculous
I’d be livid

I once received a bill from a do for $15. On the bill it said "if less than $25 do not pay". I did not pay it.
To them it was not worth their trouble to handle a $15 check.
For $25, I would have waited until the next time I visited the office if they were going to give me such a hassle.

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I got a surprise $460 bill for my son a year and a half after the visit. shite like that should be illegal! Bill me in 90 days or less

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Probably because they were fighting with the insurance company to pay it. After a year they do not have to fight anymore, and then it’s your responsibility

America’s Medical billing is one of the most dysfunctional systems in American history.

I have an amazing story that had made me hate the medical billing and insurance professions forever.

My wife has had bunions and messed up feet for all her life. 3 years ago at 36 yo, we decided to finally fix it. We’re a young healthy family so we have a high deductible $10k plan. Still do to this day. It wasn’t debilitating or anything but just an annoyance when she was working out and playing tennis.

It was 2 different surgeries adding up to $170k. Overpriced and ridiculous but whatever, insurance covers 90%+. remove bunions and put pins in to have her toe bone straightened up to the foot. 2 surgeries, 6 months apart.

We’ve been making steady payments for 3 years on it, never missed a payment.

Last spring she started having some pain and a protrusion. The pin was coming out on her right foot. Go to the Dr. and he says no biggie. Bone has fused back together so you’re all good to get the pin out. Come back this day and we’ll get it out.

She comes back, he cuts and unscrews the pin, sews her back up, they do an X-ray and he says you’re all good. Literally 10 minutes of work. She signs nothing. We have no bill. He said it’s our pin coming out so it’s fine.

2 months later, we get a 7k bill for the pin removal. I ask “politely” WTF? It’s a 10 minute procedure with your equipment at fault. If it were a few hundred dollars I’d think that was ridiculous, but still pay it. $7k is insanity and they know it. There is no justifiable way to charge that. I asked for an itemized bill. They refuse.

I said just put it on the tail end of the other bill and we’ll keep making payments since you’re obviously not going to be reasonable. They say fine.

We see both bills on their app.

Then the next couple of months we get a letter that we’re going into collections. I call again, asking WTF. Slightly less politely this time. They say, you stopped paying your bill from 2017. You’ve made payments on your 2020 bill from a few months ago. I explain what happened and they say “yeah, you’ve always paid on time. We can’t take it back from collections. You should have called in to say you wanted to pay each bill every month. Somebody should have called to explain but we strictly bill via mail and don’t call to explain. Sorry.”

So we just told the hospital and collections agency we were done and haven’t heard from them in a year. I’m sure it will bite me in the arse some day.

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We see both bills on their app.

Then the next couple of months we get a letter that we’re going into collections. I call again, asking WTF. Slightly less politely this time. They say, you stopped paying your bill from 2017. You’ve made payments on your 2020 bill from a few months ago. I explain what happened and they say “yeah, you’ve always paid on time. We can’t take it back from collections. You should have called in to say you wanted to pay each bill every month. Somebody should have called to explain but we strictly bill via mail and don’t call to explain. Sorry.”

So we just told the hospital and collections agency we were done and haven’t heard from them in a year. I’m sure it will bite me in the arse some day.

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Medical collections should be banned from appearing on credit reports.