I'm About To Flip Out!

oh, this is in addition to about 400 in other bills from the same visit...and you know what they did that day? gave me an x-ray, and handed me some motrin and out the door i went...

I've had limited experience with hospitals but I have always received multiple bills on each exit. Not even when I paid cash before leaving were the bills the same each time.

I know quite a few people who spent a few hours in the ER and came out with bills after insurance of over $2000, so the guy who said that you couldn't was being naive.

my insurance was NEVER BILLED they keep billing some account that has been closed for 4 years and low and behold...they deny it...no way....

the reason he said that is because that was the whole amount, and my insurance DOES cover it...they just want some certain form that has been sent a few times but they seem to deny that....

and now its double...wtf...

If it was an accident maybe they want you to use something other than medical insurance. My son shut the car door on his hand and the bills were handled by our car insurance. It is possible they want you to use that or if it happened in a home, the home owners insurance... I would try to call someone in the hospital accounting and say let's get this resolved with insurance because right now I'm not working and if you don't want to go the insurance route, then send me the paperwork I need to file so you can write it off and when you do, I'll need that paperwork so I can write off all the other bills like the doctors, etc. I bet if they thought they were going to have to "write" the whole thing off... they would work with you to get it paid for... They do have to write it off if you are unemployed, I'm pretty sure... as it is a hardship for you.

good points...i plan on spending half the day on the phone tomorrow. this is just crap...THIS is why i dont go to the hospital...

When the insuraance writes 'accident' they are assuming that a lawsuit is involved and that that is what is going on. IF someone checked accident, .... that was what got that ball rolling. Accident implies legal liability. If you call the hospital back and say, no, it was not an accident in which there is any litigation, that you just broke your bones ...but no litigation.

My husband bills insurance all the time because he is a psychologist. It is worse than hell.

the form i filled out asked if i was pursing any legal action and i said no (considering i fell in my own driveway) . so if they think i am they are plain stupid...though...after dealing with all this i think that is actually the case.

im just fed up, and WILL NEVER go back to that hospital...

They only have one checkbox: ACCIDENT. See if you can get that unchecked. Only go to teaching hospitals, unless there isn't one in your area. The difference between a teaching hospital and ... another one ... is about 50 years. Small non-affiliated hospitals are about 1960 in terms of treatment, which counts for a lot of the stupidity.

Remember too, hospitals are businesses. I had two stays a week apart and my deductible was more than taken care of. Later in the year I went to the er, knowing I had no deductible so it was covered 100%. When I was discharged the financial women said what credit card do you want to put the deductible on or do you want to pay cash. She wanted, I think $300. I said, look at my records here... this visit is covered 100%... she refused to.. and I said well then bill me... and of course I was never billed... It was covered 100%...and I bet they would have given me the run around if I paid it... duh

One scam some hospitals did try to pull, is if you go to one that is out of state, the er will try to get you to pay. Then they collect from your insurance... just try to get the money refunded to you...

I also had a doctor that charged me $10 more per visit. When I finally convinced them they did owe me, they gave me "credit"... no accounting, no refund... a credit on future visits.

And never pay cash. I took my daughter to a doctor who would not see anyone without a copay and I made the mistake of paying $20 cash. Somehow I didn't get a receipt, but I wasn't worried, as they had a sign that said they made NO exceptions. No copay, no seeing the doctor.. Sure enough they billed me and I pointed out their policy on not letting patients go back without paying the co pay.and insisted I paid.... it was a head ache, but the woman had to admit I was right..and take it off. Never ever will I pay cash...

its just sickening the games they play.

I hope it works out for you!

Hospitals stink!! And the insurance companies are not any better. I don't have one good thing to say about any of them, but I do hope you get your situation fixed.

Oh boy..... I am still paying off a doctors visit!! AND this is with my disability insurance. Guy just got done paying his $4000 and something bill, and he has insurance.

We can understand why when someone gets hurt or whatever why many people are living in the streets, homeless. Everything went to their medical care.
Hope you get this figured out!! Kind of like beating your head against the wall.....

no....i can get further with the head/wall thing...

Sorry to hear that. You seem to have the same kind of luck when I go to the doctors and I'm like you....I don't go to the doctors unless I absolutely have to because of it.

i had a broken rib that very suddenly got worse about 2 weeks later. i thought i might have punctured my lung or something...it hurt to breath...guess i should have just dealt with it.

I have also been fighting with insurance and hospital bill for emergency room visit, my co pay is 200 I paid that, now they doc who helped my son wants to get paid separately, my insurance says don't pay but I'm still getting bills. Apparently this doc is on contract with the hospital not an employee of the hospital, not my problem, my insurance is 200 for emergency visit period, so have to call the insurance company yet again.

You make an excellent argument for single payer health care.

Things like that are so frustrating. I am still trying to correct a bill from last July. Hope you get it straightened out.

Hospitals annoy the hell out of me!

I have had to go through things like that before. Never with my doctor but with an Ambulance company that stuck me with a bill for $800 because they screwed up the code when they billed it and can't change it after the fact. I had to go through the whole describing the incident on paper to my insurance co. They did pay it but it was a lot of crap to go through because someone in the billing office screwed up.

don't even get me started on insurance companies and hospitals...but since you did. When my last daughter was born I had insurance that covered EVERYTHING if I stayed in a semi-private room. When we checked in they said that if we wanted a private room it would be only $35 out of pocket so we opted to do that and wrote a check for that one night. Months later I get a phone call saying I am delinquent on a bill from the hospital and that I owed $35. Luckily the lady was very nice, I told her that i had written a check for that. While I was looking to make sure I had the copy of the check she started laughing. When I asked what she was laughing at she says "the hospital has sent you to collections for $35 dollars - but do you know how much your Big insurance company paid the hospital...$1. They have "deals" with these huge companies. If I didnt have insurance they would have charged me thousands of dollars - yet this huge company pays only $1. Such a ripoff! Oh...she also told me that any medical billing that shows up as a negative on your credit. If you have paid it - you can request that it is taken off your credit report and by law they have to remove it. It does not have to stay there for 7 years.

Ryan, I do know what you are saying, I'm going through similar siutations. UGH.

Super suction - I can hear from here - Thanks for sharing :-)

They can be a pain, can't they.

Wow, 10 years without seeing a Dr~not many people can say that!

How awful!!!! Well, I am so thankful that we don't "do" doctors or hospitals or anything like that.....I loathe doctors with a passion.......it's been more than 10 years since any of us have even been to a doctor....LOL! Well, hubby has to have DOT physicals for work, but that's it! Geesh, with a huge "ripoff" the medical profession is.
This is why I totally believe in natural healing and research/studying up on how to keep onesself healthy, eating organic/natural foods, etc.....
Hope you get the mess all straightened out!

I find that the emergency room is the worst place to go, and hardest to fight to get the insurance right with. Good luck.

i only went because i thought i might have had a broken rib stabbing my lung. it all the sudden got VERY painful to even take normal breaths...i dealt with it for 2 weeks and it suddenly got far worse than it was at the start...so i only went out of fear of serious injury...

that is what emergency rooms are made for, but boy do they get you with the big bucks

Hope you get it sorted out soon, but doesn't sound promising been at it awhile now, oh my how do some people keep there jobs, Helping Out One Another's Person of the Day

I sure hope they get this sorted out right.

Thanks for posting to Point Taken.

hi Ryan hope all gets sorted out. I pity you as you are sooooo nicely on track managing the money now. No one needs that and I bet I would freak out too if that happened to me.