hospital bills...the saga

[mikester]

So, back in Jun of last year my wife and son were in a minor car accident. My wife was pretty shaken up as she was 6 1/2 months pregnant at the time. She was taken by ambulance to a local hospital along with our 3 year old (who is 4 now). Neither were injured but both were examined in the ER. I was there for my son while my wife was admitted (I made it to the hospital at the same time as the ambulance).

My wife's stay included a day and a half of observation. We have insurance so the considerable bills are covered and I have no problem with what we were charged - I think.

The problem is that I KEEP getting bills months later. I just received this weekend a bill for my son's ER doctor. To my knowledge this is the first I have seen of this line item. So they are finally getting around to billing me nearly 8 months after the fact.

How will I know when I have paid in full for all treatment related to this incident?!!

My plan today is to send the billing department a request for an itemized list of all billable treatment for my wife and son's unfortunate visit to their hospital. Even then, what recourse do I have if they try to bill me at a later date for something else FINALLY?

HOW DO I KNOW WHEN I HAVE PAID MY BILL IN FULL!??!

[fingpilot]

Went thru pretty much this exact thing a couple of years ago. Did exactly the same thing, asked for a detailed bill, all in one place, and showing either paid, co-paid or still outstanding.

2 weeks later, got it, was 34 pages long. After spending 10 minutes looking at I was sick all over again. There were charges for things I have never heard of. After 10 pages gave up, called insurance broker. He LOL'd. Said welcome to my planet.

Turns out after finally asking the right person, I fouind out I owed only $90. something dollars of the $13K bill.

Yep, you guessed it. For the detailed bill I asked for after the fact, not covered by insurance.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

If I'm ever unfortunate enough to be in a similar situation, I'll gladly pay the $90 for the comprehensive, itemized bill. The peace of mind alone is well worth it.

[Neilk]

"Wife" had a $75K stay in the hospital last November. Thank God for insurance. Her insurance paid the per diem rate for 3 days which amounted to about $5,500. The hospital wrote off the other $69K and amazingly enough didn't appeal the payment.


Mike, take a close look at the EOBs from your insurance company. It's possible you might have already met your deductible and owe nothing.

[mikester]

Originally Posted by Neilk

"Wife" had a $75K stay in the hospital last November. Thank God for insurance. Her insurance paid the per diem rate for 3 days which amounted to about $5,500. The hospital wrote off the other $69K and amazingly enough didn't appeal the payment.


Mike, take a close look at the EOBs from your insurance company. It's possible you might have already met your deductible and owe nothing.

I know my insurance will cover it I just want to not receive any more bills.

[Noah930]

As a short answer, I don't know if medical billing is organized enough to give you the answer you're looking for. You can certainly try, but I don't know if you're gonna get satisfaction.

Who do you ask? If you ask the insurance company, they're just responding to whatever bills they receive. They'll be your billing clearinghouse, but it's not so simple. That's because they can only respond to billing they receive from the healthcare providers. That's the hospital, and the ER doc, and the lab, and the radiologist, and whatever other specialist(s) saw your wife. Each entity bills separately, usually. You might try to get the hospital to give a summary of any and all bills. But the hospital's business office probably has no idea what those other parties are billing. There will be a lot of legwork involved.

[peppy]

Almost two years have passed and my wife and I still get bills about every other month.


We are still waiting for them to finish the bill for our son that they said had no insurance.

I guess doctors and hospitals really do not need the money if they can wait that long to try and collect.