All the Surgery Bills? (...or Dealing With Health Insurance, Part 3)
I received the requested bills from the Boston Medical Center yesterday. Although they claimed to have sent these to me already, this is the first I've seen them! Also, they weren't kidding; there are 5 bills. Here they are:
Three bills of $10. These look like copays from visits. I thought I had payed this first two, but likely I had only paid the one from my first visit at the end of last summer, and perhaps I didn't even do that. Still, these seem legit and I can afford them:-P Total so far: $30.
(Note: Yes, I do look at everything and try to figure out whether it's a legitimate charge. There have been too many times where I've talked to someone and asked whether I should be getting charged then have them realize that, no, I shouldn't.)
There is a $338.80 bill from what I think was my sleep test to determine whether I had apnea. Looking at this, the initial cost that was billed to my insurance was $2420! Wow. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I had no idea there was going to be any sort of seperate charge for this---I thought it would be a part of the total surgery cost or doctor's visit cost. Apparently not.
I realize now that doctors have the easiest salesman positions ever. Instead of saying, "I think we should sell you the opportunity to take this test so we can accumulate some more data about you, is that okay?" I was told, "We are going to run this test; please see our administrator on the way out to finalize your test date." No questions, no pitch, not even a description of the charges.
Anyways, continuing. The last bill is, of course, the most painful. This lists charges I accumulated while in for surgery. The amount billed to me is: $4970.31.
Yikes. Before I even start adding up all the things now charged to me, let's describe this one in a bit more detail. The total billed to insurance was $14,312.29. Insurance negotiated it down $4272.98, covered $5000 and then there's another $69 removed as a "late charge write off" (wtj does that mean???).
Additionally, I got the bill from Argent on Monday for "BU Pathology". This one comes to $536.
In total, the money I owe is:
4167.00 (BUMC... see last post) + 4970.31 + 30.00 + 338.80 + 536.00 = $10,042.11, assuming I'm doing my math correctly. I'm pretty sure I don't have that much money.
Yesterday I received an automated call from the "Special Billing Office" at either BUMC or BMC (I don't recall which). The number to call them back is: (800) 597-0817. I'm on the phone with them now...
... and now I'm done with that. Here's a bit of the approximate transcript:
"Hi, how may I help you?"
"Hi, is this the BUMC billing office or the BMC office?"
"Um... do you have an EP number on your bill?" (Maybe it was 'EPS' or something... I'm not sure.)
"Well, I have bills from both."
"You should see an EP number somewhere near your name on one of the bills."
"Um... no, there's nothing like that here..."
"Hmm. What about an account number? If you're calling us, there must be an account number associated with us."
"I have an account number on my Boston University bill."
"Okay, what's that?" I gave him the number. "Nope... that's not one of ours."
I was feeling pretty stupid at this point. "Well, I got a phone call telling me to call this number..."
"Oh, at what number did you receive the phone call?" I gave him my cell number. "Okay, we have your information here." Things went better from here on out. He advised me to call my insurance and request an Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) as it relates to these charges. Apparently they should have already sent this to me, but, of course, I haven't seen this at all. (Somehow, the information from these charges just isn't reaching me. Not only am I not receiving anything from my insurance, but I had to request that these bills get sent to me from the BMC.)
After I get that and make sure the charges all match up, I need to pay up. I quickly asked about any free care. He said that although that's usually reserved for people without insurance, I should give it a try.
Okay, this one's long enough. I'll call the insurance people and update this later.
-Kyle
Three bills of $10. These look like copays from visits. I thought I had payed this first two, but likely I had only paid the one from my first visit at the end of last summer, and perhaps I didn't even do that. Still, these seem legit and I can afford them:-P Total so far: $30.
(Note: Yes, I do look at everything and try to figure out whether it's a legitimate charge. There have been too many times where I've talked to someone and asked whether I should be getting charged then have them realize that, no, I shouldn't.)
There is a $338.80 bill from what I think was my sleep test to determine whether I had apnea. Looking at this, the initial cost that was billed to my insurance was $2420! Wow. I know this is going to sound stupid, but I had no idea there was going to be any sort of seperate charge for this---I thought it would be a part of the total surgery cost or doctor's visit cost. Apparently not.
I realize now that doctors have the easiest salesman positions ever. Instead of saying, "I think we should sell you the opportunity to take this test so we can accumulate some more data about you, is that okay?" I was told, "We are going to run this test; please see our administrator on the way out to finalize your test date." No questions, no pitch, not even a description of the charges.
Anyways, continuing. The last bill is, of course, the most painful. This lists charges I accumulated while in for surgery. The amount billed to me is: $4970.31.
Yikes. Before I even start adding up all the things now charged to me, let's describe this one in a bit more detail. The total billed to insurance was $14,312.29. Insurance negotiated it down $4272.98, covered $5000 and then there's another $69 removed as a "late charge write off" (wtj does that mean???).
Additionally, I got the bill from Argent on Monday for "BU Pathology". This one comes to $536.
In total, the money I owe is:
4167.00 (BUMC... see last post) + 4970.31 + 30.00 + 338.80 + 536.00 = $10,042.11, assuming I'm doing my math correctly. I'm pretty sure I don't have that much money.
Yesterday I received an automated call from the "Special Billing Office" at either BUMC or BMC (I don't recall which). The number to call them back is: (800) 597-0817. I'm on the phone with them now...
... and now I'm done with that. Here's a bit of the approximate transcript:
"Hi, how may I help you?"
"Hi, is this the BUMC billing office or the BMC office?"
"Um... do you have an EP number on your bill?" (Maybe it was 'EPS' or something... I'm not sure.)
"Well, I have bills from both."
"You should see an EP number somewhere near your name on one of the bills."
"Um... no, there's nothing like that here..."
"Hmm. What about an account number? If you're calling us, there must be an account number associated with us."
"I have an account number on my Boston University bill."
"Okay, what's that?" I gave him the number. "Nope... that's not one of ours."
I was feeling pretty stupid at this point. "Well, I got a phone call telling me to call this number..."
"Oh, at what number did you receive the phone call?" I gave him my cell number. "Okay, we have your information here." Things went better from here on out. He advised me to call my insurance and request an Explanation Of Benefits (EOB) as it relates to these charges. Apparently they should have already sent this to me, but, of course, I haven't seen this at all. (Somehow, the information from these charges just isn't reaching me. Not only am I not receiving anything from my insurance, but I had to request that these bills get sent to me from the BMC.)
After I get that and make sure the charges all match up, I need to pay up. I quickly asked about any free care. He said that although that's usually reserved for people without insurance, I should give it a try.
Okay, this one's long enough. I'll call the insurance people and update this later.
-Kyle
posted by Kyle at 9:50 AM
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