I got my mail late last night and seen a hospitol bill in there that I could not figure out why it would be. It was from a hospitol that has a pain clinic office unit as part of the hospitol. I go there for continueing care. I pay every co pay up front. Well apparently this bill is from that service because I had started to see a phycologist to deal with the evryday pain. Thing is I always pay her directly the $20 co-pay. I recieved a bill from the hospitol for the co-pay now. I have only been there twice so far and recorded each check number and payment. I looked at my bank statement online and seen she has never cashed this check made out a month ago. What happens if she doesn't cash the check and I haev to send another? Should I and then she decides "hey think I will cash my check". I know it isn;t much but when you are under care and paying a co-pay weekly it really does. Going to call them tomorrow and hte doctor. Just thought i would see what my options all were.
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Before sending out another check you should first contact the bank and cancel the previous check because after making the payment for the second time if the doctor deposits the first bill then you will be paying double. If you have the check number, you can also contact the doctor and get it verified once again whether she has received the check or not. If she confirms that she has received the check then you need not issue another one again. However, if the doctor has not received any check, you can cancel the first check and reissue one again.
Hi Fireyone
I think that Mary is right. Since she has not yet cashed out the check yet, you should first cancel the check and reissue it once again. Else if the hospital reports the debt to the credit bureaus, and the credit bureaus lists the debt in your credit report, your score may drop and it may remain there for seven years as you know.
Well I called today and it isn't what it appeared to be. Apparently the hospitol is charging me a co-pay on what they say is a Facility Fee. Since the pain clinic is located on hospitol grounds I have to apy them a fee everytime I have an appointment there. This is ridiculous and I actually called my health care provider and they are investigating whther they can charge me this fee. This is so far the first one I got in the months I have had to pay (auto med pay exhausted) I am just hoping they do not bill for all the past appointmest because I will have a hard time paying. IS it fair and why didn't someone inform me up front..if they had I would have just went elsewhere and only paid one straight co-pay of 20 buvks
I would let my insurance company handle this one fireyone. It is important that we let our insurance companies know when providers and facilities are pulling this kind of practice, we are on the front lines so to speak.
The insurance company will then approach the facility or provider about the situation. We pay enough for health care, I would be really surprised if your insurance company did not step in and do something about this, especially if they are an "in network" provider of services.
Keep us updated, hope you get this resolved soon.
I posted this on another forum also. I had an actual person who worked in the field answer me. She said that they started doing this a while ago and its legal. They should have informed me of the extra charge so she suggested if they do not waive the fees I call the BBB on them. She said I should also inform them that I will take my business elsewhere (which adds up too ALOT) and let them know I ill inform others of this. I guess threatening them fianacially may awaken there generosity.
credit
How can this LEGALLY be done? I know you were INFORMED by this woman it was legal, but,....have you checked with someone else? Like the Commonwealth, or somewhere?
No not yet SD. My insurance company is looking into it at this very moment. I am going to call them on Monday and see if they have any information on it for me. I am worried if they take too long that this bill will be turned into collections and then to my credit report. I am going to explain that to the insurance compnay and hopefully get them moving. I left a message at the billing dept. at the hospitol that my insurance company was looking into it. I will let you know if I find out anything on mOnday.
The insurance company will be your best bet to deal with this, they hand over alot of money to the hospital and will have a much bigger affect on them than you or anyone else. Think about how many people that use that facility that are under that insurance, the insurance company pays for more than just you.
I say let them look into and see what they come up with, they have the money and money speaks, so if they say to the hospital, this may be legal but if you want our clients you will waive it, then I am sure the hospital is not going to want to lose all that business and will be willing to work something out for those individuals that are covered under that particular insurance company.
Well the insurance company said they had straightened everything out and I would not owe any further co-pays. I called billing at the hospitol and they are denying this even though they say they talked to the rep. I was going to call highmark back but called the pain clinic instead to see if they knew what was really going on. They also told me to ignore any bills from the hospitol saying I owe the co-pays because I do not. I will give it till after the holidays and call the hospitol back. If I still get this same thing from them demanding I pay I will start over again by calling highmark and letting them know what is going on.