Health Junk, Part 5
Calls made since the last post: BMC, Argent, BMC, BU Pathology (twice in a row), BUMC (not a 1-800 number...), some other medical billing people, and Chickering. Here's a quick synopsis:
The BMC people told me that they could not tell me about the itemized things on the itemized list of things I have from them. I would need to call the doctor's office. Additionally, they said that these lists are, in fact, bills (although they don't tell me where to send money or have account numbers listen on them or anything). The lady told me where to send things and what to write on the checks, so now I'll actually be able to pay some of these things that people are waiting for. Amazing!
I called Argent (the collection people) again and this time got to talk to a real person, although she was by far the least friendly person I'd talked to so far. She asked me why I hadn't sent them my insurance card, and I explained that I was in the process of making sure that this charge was, in fact, valid. I certainly wasn't about to pay a bill to people that I'd never heard of for a charge I wasn't sure existed. She didn't seem pleased by this, "of course this is a real bill," she told me. I asked for the number of the B.U. Pathology people that had originally billed me, but they don't have that. I did mention that I had only just heard about this, and she noticed that the address had been changed, but this did little to brighten her tone to me. She said I should fax over the insurance card right away so they could talk to the insurance. I don't have a fax machine, so I decided to call other people before even thinking about doing that.
Now back to the BMC people, trying to track down the pathologist. They gave me a number, which I called. There was a machine, from the pathologist office, stating that if I wanted to report a change in my insurance, I should stay on the line. Otherwise someone would come on the line to help me. This was at 2:40pm, and the machine voice mentioned that the office was open until 3pm.
I waited. Then I was transferred... to a machine that would record my change of insurance information. Must be a fluke... I hung up and dialed again. Apparently one can only change their insurance information with this phone number.
I needed to get ahold of the pathologist another way. I had his name from the Argent people, so I looked him up in the BU directory and called his office number. Nothing. I then called the BUMC (not a 1-800 number! gasp...) and asked for a number for pathology. After two transfers, someone very nice there rooted through their own notes to find a number for me. It's a good one, so here it is: (800) 456-1552.
This is the number of a company who apparently does lots of billing for lots of hospitals/medical facilites/etc. They asked me for my account number, but, since I didn't have a bill from the pathologist, I didn't have one. I said, "I'm trying to locate somebody who does billing for Boston University Pathology." (I took note of that after saying it when I realized how stupid it was. I'm desperate to be billed! Please, someone help me! :-P)
They confirmed that it was a real bill (finally!). I asked why the insurance hadn't paid for it, and they didn't know. They did say that it was pretty strange. Call chickering, they advised.
I look at the Aetna EOB for that charge, and it has a note: "Coverage excludes routine tests, immunizations or exams." Well, this is clearly not any of these. It's not often that I get some sort of pathology that I don't know about that's routine. Thanks. So, another call to chickering.
Despite the fact that I'm getting completely screwed by the lack of benefits in my insurance package, the Aetna people are usually the nicest people I've talked to. Perhaps that's just because they can see the full amount of money that I'm getting fleeced for every time I call. Megan was no different. When I mentioned the charge, she said, "There's no diagnosis with this." I don't really understand what that means, so she explained that whomever billed it hadn't given an explanation for the charges. They assumed it was routine testing and didn't cover it. Megan said I should call the people who were billing me again and tell them to resubmit the charges.
Now, this honestly didn't make any sense to me. The people billing me were now these Argent people, and they didn't even know the phone number of the pathologist. How would they be able to correctly resubmit the bill? Due to my confusion about this issue, Megan offered to call Argent for me. I couldn't exactly refuse this service, so she put me on hold. She came back a few minutes later, saying that they would correctly resubmit the bill.
Whew. And now I'm here. It's 3:40, and I would like to get in touch with the doctor's office and find out about these anethesiology charges. First, however, I need to go to the pharmacy and fill prescriptions before I go on my internship.
More later, as always :-P
The BMC people told me that they could not tell me about the itemized things on the itemized list of things I have from them. I would need to call the doctor's office. Additionally, they said that these lists are, in fact, bills (although they don't tell me where to send money or have account numbers listen on them or anything). The lady told me where to send things and what to write on the checks, so now I'll actually be able to pay some of these things that people are waiting for. Amazing!
I called Argent (the collection people) again and this time got to talk to a real person, although she was by far the least friendly person I'd talked to so far. She asked me why I hadn't sent them my insurance card, and I explained that I was in the process of making sure that this charge was, in fact, valid. I certainly wasn't about to pay a bill to people that I'd never heard of for a charge I wasn't sure existed. She didn't seem pleased by this, "of course this is a real bill," she told me. I asked for the number of the B.U. Pathology people that had originally billed me, but they don't have that. I did mention that I had only just heard about this, and she noticed that the address had been changed, but this did little to brighten her tone to me. She said I should fax over the insurance card right away so they could talk to the insurance. I don't have a fax machine, so I decided to call other people before even thinking about doing that.
Now back to the BMC people, trying to track down the pathologist. They gave me a number, which I called. There was a machine, from the pathologist office, stating that if I wanted to report a change in my insurance, I should stay on the line. Otherwise someone would come on the line to help me. This was at 2:40pm, and the machine voice mentioned that the office was open until 3pm.
I waited. Then I was transferred... to a machine that would record my change of insurance information. Must be a fluke... I hung up and dialed again. Apparently one can only change their insurance information with this phone number.
I needed to get ahold of the pathologist another way. I had his name from the Argent people, so I looked him up in the BU directory and called his office number. Nothing. I then called the BUMC (not a 1-800 number! gasp...) and asked for a number for pathology. After two transfers, someone very nice there rooted through their own notes to find a number for me. It's a good one, so here it is: (800) 456-1552.
This is the number of a company who apparently does lots of billing for lots of hospitals/medical facilites/etc. They asked me for my account number, but, since I didn't have a bill from the pathologist, I didn't have one. I said, "I'm trying to locate somebody who does billing for Boston University Pathology." (I took note of that after saying it when I realized how stupid it was. I'm desperate to be billed! Please, someone help me! :-P)
They confirmed that it was a real bill (finally!). I asked why the insurance hadn't paid for it, and they didn't know. They did say that it was pretty strange. Call chickering, they advised.
I look at the Aetna EOB for that charge, and it has a note: "Coverage excludes routine tests, immunizations or exams." Well, this is clearly not any of these. It's not often that I get some sort of pathology that I don't know about that's routine. Thanks. So, another call to chickering.
Despite the fact that I'm getting completely screwed by the lack of benefits in my insurance package, the Aetna people are usually the nicest people I've talked to. Perhaps that's just because they can see the full amount of money that I'm getting fleeced for every time I call. Megan was no different. When I mentioned the charge, she said, "There's no diagnosis with this." I don't really understand what that means, so she explained that whomever billed it hadn't given an explanation for the charges. They assumed it was routine testing and didn't cover it. Megan said I should call the people who were billing me again and tell them to resubmit the charges.
Now, this honestly didn't make any sense to me. The people billing me were now these Argent people, and they didn't even know the phone number of the pathologist. How would they be able to correctly resubmit the bill? Due to my confusion about this issue, Megan offered to call Argent for me. I couldn't exactly refuse this service, so she put me on hold. She came back a few minutes later, saying that they would correctly resubmit the bill.
Whew. And now I'm here. It's 3:40, and I would like to get in touch with the doctor's office and find out about these anethesiology charges. First, however, I need to go to the pharmacy and fill prescriptions before I go on my internship.
More later, as always :-P
posted by Kyle at 1:32 PM
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