Does it only happen to me?

[Laura's Babies]

I think I posted several month ago about a collection agency calling me for a unpaid lab bill demanding payment. It took 3 calls (them calling me) to even find out WHO I owed the money too and for what. Once I found out who turned it over to them for collection I had to call and see if we could figure out why my insurance didn't pay it. Come to find out they had all my information in their computer wrong, my mis-spelled last name, address, wrong information on my insurance. Got that fixed!

The today I call CareMark about my mail order Rx because it was suppose to be a 3 month supply, the paper listed it was a 3 month supply and I was charged for a 3 month supply.. All I received was a 1 month supply... Here we go again.. There is a clause that if it is for a medication you haven't filled in over a year, you can only get a 1 month supply.. Huh? What? You just sent me a 3 month supply several months ago! She had no record of it, nor was there any record of me having filled a Rx for that ANYWHERE in the last 12 months! Huh? I have been on this stuff (eye drops) for years and suggested something was wrong with their system... letting her know this kind of stuff happens to me all the time. She had to dig deep into their system to find the problem but she did find it and that I had been on these eye drops for years. She promised the would send me the other 2 refills without any added cost to me..But this was only after we had been on the phone for over a hour..

Does this stuff happen to anyone else besides me? I can walk in a store that has thousands of the same thing, the one I buy and take home will be the only defective one in the whole lot of them.

I have learned to laugh to expect it and laugh about it but this is TWICE in the last 6 month in the health care community that this has happened to me. To me that's alarming. I don't mind mistakes, people are human but in health care matters, I do expect perfection since even a little mistake could cost someone their life.

[Trinityagain]

I have this problem as well, mostly because of my first name. My name is Michele...ONE L! And no matter how many times I tell people this it never fails that someone will add that extra letter so when I try to reschedule an appt, refill a Rx or whatever they can't find me....so I understand completely. You are not alone.....

Most recent problem was trying to convinve them to change my work phone number in their system....the number they had was 2 offices ago! And I have tried probaably 5 times in the past 6 months to get it changed....

[happylabs]

Oh yes. I have had many issues with Physician's Billing. Now I try to pay my co-pay every time I go to the doctor. However, that still does not keep them from sending me bogus bills. I think it was about a year ago I received a bill from Physician's Billing and I knew I owed them nothing. Upon calling them they said, oh that was a mistake...disregard. I wonder how many bills they send out that way and people pay not knowing it is not accurate.

My daughter's first name is Rachael. R.a.c.h.a.e.l. All though school the teachers spelled her name wrong...Rachel. Ugh. After going to college for a full year they still spell it wrong. I give up!

So, no, do not feel alone.

[Cataholic]

My son had a visit with an ENT. They never sent me a bill for the co-pay, instead they turned it over to collections.

We had returned to the office between the time of the first visit and the collection letter, and no one said, "oh, btw, you have a balance".

When the letter came and I phoned the collection agency, he laughed and said he gets calls like mine all the time. I wasn't really laughing, but, was glad he seemed to understand my frustration.

I will never forget my own visit to the doctor last spring (I think). I needed antibiotics for a sinus infection. I asked for a bill when I left and the receptionist told me she didn't know the amount, that a third party, off site, place did the billing and it would be mailed to me.

There is something strange about the medical community and its billing practices.

[Cinder & Smoke]

There is something strange about the medical community and its billing practices.

No kidding???


Billing "Practices" =

They sure need to **Practice** some more - they're NOT very good at it!

[lvpets2002]

And just wait till the Goverment takes it all over.. Wont that be funn.. Sorry Laura for all of your problems.. I know you just want to pull your hair out..

No kidding???


Billing "Practices" =

They sure need to **Practice** some more - they're NOT very good at it!

[Freedom]

Does this stuff happen to anyone else besides me?

It all started over 30 years ago, when I was a student in college (to remain nameless). I had . . . forget the term, work - study, where you get a job and they pay you, a form of scholarship / financial aid. I had that for my entire 4 years.

For 4 years, I had to go pick up my pay check after a trip to the Registrar's office. For some reason, the Registrar's office NEVER had me listed as a current student! I had a current photo ID, Dad got the tuition bills alright and paid those, but they would be stunned when I showed up, once a month for FOUR YEARS! Come time for graduation . . . you guessed it! I was never a student, why would I expect to be on the graduation list? Never did learn WHAT the problem was.

Since then, I am seldom showing up in computer records where I should be. It is a life long status, I learned long ago to expect it.

You are one of our insurance members? I don't see you on the computer
You are an employee here? I don't have you on the payroll list
You are a member of this gym? HOW DID YOU GET AN ID CARD that has to be a fake!
You signed up for our dance lessons? We don't have you listed.
That dog obedience class is full. You paid a deposit to hold a place? But it is full, you can't take it now.


I automatically pull out canceled checks, even before I make the first phone call or the first visit to an office.

[Laura's Babies]

Freedom, YOU have a bigger problem than I do I think! This too, has been lifelong for me but never as bad as yours. WOW!

Isn't it amazing how they have no record of you but are ever so willing to take your money without a problem!

[Lizzie]

The worst for me was also a medical bill. Months after I'd been to a clinic I received an overdue bill. I called the insurance company and was told the clinic hadn't given the correct information. I called the clinic again and they told me they would clear it up. A month later, I would get a more urgent bill from the clinic, and I'd call the insurance company again, and then the clinic again. This went on for eight months and, although it didn't end up with a collection agency, it certainly came near. Finally I got someone at the insurance company who was willing to give me more information than anyone else. She said the problem was that the bill was for a mammogram and the code the clinic was using had nothing to do with breasts! I enlightened the clinic and the bills stopped. Now why couldn't they have talked to each other and figured this out?!

[Freedom]

Ahhh, and so the story continues.

Last week, Verizon had sales folks walking the neighborhood to sign folks up for FIOS, which has jsut come to our neighborhood. Takes 15 to 20 minutes to sign up.

HA! When I did it, on Saturday, the sales guy was amazed, it took over an hour and a half!

Little did he know, on Sunday I got a phone call, some of the stuff didn't go through and it took another 35 minutes on the phone.

Now, I decided that it made sense to go with a generic email rather than use the provider and keep changing email address. So yesterday I set up a gmail account, notified the 152 folks in my address book, changedc 5 forums, Facebook, etc.

Within 3 hours, gmail had disabled my account. No explanation. Took me ages to find ways to contact them (no, not by phone, by email support!) and I eventually received a message that they could not re establish the account, I'd have to set up a new one. HUH?

Later, I learned that you MUST have a mobile phone with text messaging to have a gmail account; but they don't SAY that anywhere on the sign up pages or in their Terms of Service. Was that why I was dropped? No idea.

So this morning, I go through the routine with my Yahoo email address. Except my message included a typo, so my new email addy reads
xxxx @ yahool.com See that "l" on the end of yahoo? Guess it is a combination of aol and yahoo?

So of course, all 152 folks are emailing me asking what my new email address is: is it really yahool? Or did I mean yahoo?

So this last blip is one of my own creation and not exactly what you were getting at, Laura, but this is life at my end, ha haa. Ya have to laugh, otherwise you'd be bald with tearing your hair out!

BTW, gmail would import my email address book; yahoo won't, so I'll be typing all 152 in. Grrrr