A story you are going to love...

[Laura's Babies]

This happened to me recently and I am laughing my butt off...

Last week, I got a phone call one night from a collection agency saying I owed them $250 and would I like to pay it over the phone?

Me; "Oh Yea? What do I owe this money FOR?"

Them; "Lab work...."

Me; What Lab?

Them; The lab but you can pay it over the phone right now and clear this all up!"

Me; "First, I want to make SURE I owe for it before I pay it so WHO did I owe it to?"

Them; "The LAB!"

Me "WHAT LAB?"

Them; "The lab the sample was sent to! Don't you want to clear this up and you CAN DO IT OVER THE PHONE RIGHT NOW!"

Me; "If it is for lab work, my insurance would have paid it and I would Rather find out why they did not, probably a coding error that can be fixed, so WHAT LAB?!!!!

Them (again) "the lab where the sample was SENT!"

OK, I could see I was getting nowhere so I tired a different approach...

Me; "What doctor sent the samples in?"

Them; We don't have that information, you OWE it so why not pay it RIGHT NOW!?"

Me; "You must think I am CRAZY! I pay my bills and if I do indeed owe it, it WILL be paid but I want to be satisfied FIRST that I actually owe it! You are not getting a dime out of me until I can verify I owe you!"

We ended the conversation with her promising to send me a bill..

Next day I called my insurance provider and they had no record of any labs on me much less one that was rejected.

Then I get a second call from the same collection agency and this one provided me the date and doctors name and I told him OK, what I need now is the Labs NAME and PHONE NUMBER so we can figure out WHY my insurance didn't pay it and have no record of it ever being submitted. The dude HUNG UP!

By now I am convinced this is just a scam!

Yesterday I went to the doctors office and told them the story of these calls. The person I needed to see wasn't there but I left word for her to call me. She called and I told her the story and told her I needed the name and phone number of the lab.. I got it.. But in looking over it all, she told me "WAIT.....!" She said on the Labs paperwork, they have my last name mis-spelled.. She compared the labs paperwork to what they sent with the sample and the doctors was right, the Lab had mis-spelled it..

This is where it gets really funny. That lab had no record of me so on a 3 way call, she called the collection agency they use and they had NO record of me either under the misspelled or correctly spelled name. So they tried entering me in the computer under birthday... nothing, address.. nothing so we tried the social and BINGO. He pulled it up and someone had put in not only a misspelled last name, but wrong address (all numbers were there but in the wrong order), also they had ALL my insurance information entered in wrong too.. All insurance information was wrong. "i" was entered as "L" and there were a lot of "I's"...

End of the story is it has all been re-entered correctly and I am highly amused.

Moral of the story.. Please be sure you hire people who can type if they are entering such important information in on a computer!

[lvpets2002]

I would have been like "What the FFkk are you people trying to pull.. Oh I would have been getting Mad.. You handled it well.. I prob would have said well you can just speak to my Attorny..Yes good moral to the story..

[happylabs]

Scary, isn't it, that these people have all of our personal information and don't have a clue what they are doing!!!

[Laura's Babies]

I was highly amused by the whole thing! # 1, that they thought I was going to pay them $250 over a phone for a bill they could not verify I even owed and kept insisting I do it over the phone and give them my banking information!

# 2- the first caller couldn't even identify what lab it was or what doctor had ordered the lab work done..

# 3- The second caller had the information of what doctor, had the Labs name but didn't expect me to ask for the labs name and phone number and not want to give it to me?

# 4- ALL the mistakes the LAB made, one mistake I could see, but mistake after mistake? Hummmm... now I am wondering if I can trust the results?

# 5- How obvious it is that they are the idiots and they had sent a collection agency after ME!

I just think it is ALL so funny!

# 6- WHO is going to pay the collection agency for that mistake? (and I asked the billing clerk at the lab that question.)

I wonder if my account is the only mistake made there that day too!

[moosmom]

Laura,

You are one wise woman!!! The people that I worry about are the elderly who live alone or with their spouses, and these jerks try to scam them. These poor people get scammed all the time and don't know any better.

Good for you for being on your toes.

[Moesha]

What I find amazing is that they messed up your name and the numbers in your address, but put together all the numbers in the correct order to be able to call you. They should be grateful to you that you did their work for them. I probably would not have gone to the doctor's office to straighten it out for them. Well, maybe if they gave me the correct name of my doctor and I had been there recently. But maybe not.

[Edwina's Secretary]

And to think people are worried if the government gets involved in healthcare delvery it will get messed up! I share you pain. Hospitals, labs and insurance companies hire minimum wage employees to handle sensitive information and teaches them the customer is always wrong!

[Medusa]

This reminds me of an incident that took place years ago. I was trying to track an order and said "It was to be delivered to Greensburg, Ohio". The woman said "Ma'am, there is no Greensburg, Ohio." I said "Really?"
"Yes", she said. "Then the town where I live doesn't exist? So that would mean the house I'm in doesn't exist either. Then I don't exist either. So you mustn't exist either!" She got my point and found my order. They're out there, Laura, and probably reproducing as we speak.

[smokey the elder]

A long time ago I went to apply for a car loan. I had a good job and good credit, and was surprised when I was turned down. I called the bank and found out that some doofus had transposed 2 digits of my social security number. It got sorted out pretty quickly after that.

That was smart what you did. The way the caller acted had all the classic red flags of a phone scammer. They ought to know better.

[RICHARD]

Wait until you get a letter in the mail threatening you with going to jail for child support.

When you do not have children!

A clerical mistake that told me I was going to get my wages garnished or thrown in jail!

THat was an interesting letter-phone call to get that one figured out!

[Laura's Babies]

Richard, when I saw you had posted, I knew it would be GOOD!!

(sorry, but I have to ask....did you get to meet your kids?) (LOL!)

They're out there, Laura, and probably reproducing as we speak.

THAT HAD ME ROLLING! TOOOOO funny!!

Oh, I called the doctors office and told them of the big mess to kind of warn them of the type of people they are TRUSTING with important stuff.

[CountryWolf07]

This reminds me of an incident that took place years ago. I was trying to track an order and said "It was to be delivered to Greensburg, Ohio". The woman said "Ma'am, there is no Greensburg, Ohio." I said "Really?"
"Yes", she said. "Then the town where I live doesn't exist? So that would mean the house I'm in doesn't exist either. Then I don't exist either. So you mustn't exist either!" She got my point and found my order. They're out there, Laura, and probably reproducing as we speak.

Ha.. Nice.