doctors and billing

[ab]

I can never understand how the billing department for general practitioner office do it.  The doctor I normally see charges a certain amount and this one time I see someone else in the office as he was not available and they bill me different and more.
I call them and question it.  The lady at the billing gets agitated as to why I question it.  She tells me
1- the doc saw your for four things
2- the doc does not know your chart

My reply
I have been seen years before for the same things at the same time and did not charge me more.  Are you telling me that because she does not know my chart, you are charging me more.  Of course, she said no.

Jeesh, I am talking to her stern and she says why are you rude.  I tell her, this is how I talk and basically I was not gonna have her push me over.  She goes on to say, come to the office and talk to the doctor.  I am like I can't even get in for an appointment to do physical and you are saying he can see me.  No, do your job and have the doctors review this and get back to me.   

I wonder if I will hear back.  I better write a letter complaining and have it on record I guess.

It is so hard to find a good doctor.  I hate that they don't even look at your when examine, they got their laptop and just busy typing everything you say.  No eye contact whatsoever.  Just great.


What you guys/gals experience ?

[muskrat]

practically the same.  it's a numbers game lately.

[mitt]

You pretty well summed up my experience also.  IZ_ math for billing, general lack of caring, etc.  I think 50% of the cost of health care is shuffling papers / negotiating costs / arguing with patients over billing, etc. that has no value add.

I think for our second son, who was born in Dec 2008, it wasn't until Sept 2009 before the last bill was paid to the hospital due to above reasons.


mitt

[IZ]

I work in the medical setting and can tell you all about billing. I no longer work directly for  rehab companies because of it.  The name of the game is productivity.

[Speedbag]

Yep.

It seems all they're after is your money. I won't go unless something is seriously wrong, or if it's the annual checkup.

[The Architect]

I won't go unless something is seriously wrong

 


I approve this statement.   (unfortunately  )

[cokey]

I haven't been to a doctor in over 7 years..  wife works in medical billing,  has been laid off for quite some time now..  ill ask her about it...

[duccarlos]

I go at least once a year for my physical. If I go at any other point it's probably I'm on my death bed.

[DesmoDiva]

Don't get me started.   

Still fighting with Orthopedics office for a visit in May.  They submitted it to my old insurance company even though I had updated my insurance info with them at the time of appointment.

My 8 weeks of PT for my shoulder following aforementioned Ortho appt was like tossing $20 out my car window going down the road.  I rarely ever saw the PT, just the PTA.  I don't need to pay someone $40 a pop to watch me do my exercises. 

[dropstharockalot]

... I think 50% of the cost of health care is shuffling papers / negotiating costs / arguing with patients over billing, etc. that has no value add.

I believe this is why all the insurance companies are trying to shift everyone to an HSA coverage... they turn you into your own billing department, which allows them to reduce their costs by reducing their billing staff.

In the one year I was covered in a HSA, I caught four instances of double-billing.

[mitt]

I believe this is why all the insurance companies are trying to shift everyone to an HSA coverage... they turn you into your own billing department, which allows them to reduce their costs by reducing their billing staff.

In the one year I was covered in a HSA, I caught four instances of double-billing.

I need to start with HSA.  I will soon, now that we are done having kids, and can hopefully manage our costs better. 

Another example of where we are today as a medical profession - at a well being check for my son, I caught the nurse plotting jaundice lever vs weight progress wrong on log paper.  He was normal, but she was plotting it high, which would have made us start daily treatments for him          The only thing that prevented that was me watching her like a hawk.

If you can't do your job right, you should be fired.

mitt

[Stella]

Other than getting girl parts checked out regularly, I haven't had a physical in decades. 

Coincidentally found a doc this past week to schedule the long-overdue check-up but only because of some achy joint pain that has developed (this GP is also a sports medicine specialist).

I'm beginning to fear insurance issues as much as finding out that I'm just getting old.   

[Drjones]

I believe this is why all the insurance companies are trying to shift everyone to an HSA coverage... they turn you into your own billing department, which allows them to reduce their costs by reducing their billing staff.

In the one year I was covered in a HSA, I caught four instances of double-billing.

It probably depends on the carrier, but all of the billing has been done by the doc's office and processed by the ins co.  It is just the payment is made by me at the office and is on me to double check that what was paid matches what was filed.

The main reason for the HSA push is that it puts more of the usage cost on the user at the benefit of lower premiums with the thought that the user will be more mindful of what they're spending when the cost is coming out of their pocket instead of billed behind the scene never to be directly viewed by the user.

[fastwin]

After I broke my neck in May 2007 I fought over medical bills for over a year and a half. I got hurt in Oklahoma, was taken by med evac helo to an Arkansas hospital then taken by ground ambulance back home to a Dallas hospital. So I had three states worth of medical providers billing me for shit. I swear there were 250 different outfits reviewing my x-rays and MRIs in all three states! It was crazy.

More than half of them had all my personal info, medical insurance and social security number wrong. That just added to the fun. It was made even more entertaining when a lot of them somehow sent bills to my ex-wife's house (WTF?) and she just tossed them in the trash. Soooo, I start getting calls from collection agencies about past due med bills that I never got. Let me guess, the bill was sent to XYZ address? I told them the wrong address/ex-wife story, we'd get a good laugh out of it and the problem would get straightened out. I never thought it would ever come to an end.

I have had a really good personal doctor for twenty years. I was one of his very first patients when he opened his private practice. We are like old friends. He had a very honest talk with me last year about the way the medical profession is going and you could see and hear the sorrow in his tale.

He said the relationship that he and I have as patient and doctor is coming to an end. The changes in insurance, Medicare, the potential new health care plan, etc are going to force doctors to turn their practices into a high speed low drag patient mill. He said to make ends meet he will probably start seeing twice as many patients a day and that means spending less and less time with each one. Opening up the avenue for misdiagnosis and maybe not ordering the right tests. He sounded depressed even telling me about it.

I bet half of every doctors office staff are there just for billing purposes and dealing with insurance carriers. And I too seem to get different stories about my bills vs insurance every time. I think they want to confuse you so you will stop asking. It's apparently working.

[kopfjäger]

Too easy