Medical Bill Errors

[batman]

Just by hearing the highlights of this new story this morning on ABC's 'Good Morning America', I decided to keep my TV on in order to watch the full story. And at the moment of this posting, the news story along with the video of the story can be found at abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=7241383&page=1

And just in case the new story disappears or is it eventually eliminated from the ABC news website, here are the names and links for the two Medical Billing Resources that were displayed at the end of that ABC news story.

Medical Billing Advocates of America - www.billadvocates.com

National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association - www.nhcaa.org

[Meetz1064]

Bruce! We can certainly ALL use that information at some point in time, I'm sure of that....

[flinnigan]

I'm still waiting for my detailed bill from a week long stay for video EEG in Dec. as well as my WADA in March I've had to request it twice. I found a small error in a single visit for my son. Just $9.00 but it makes me wonder how mine will look. I'll let you know.

[dfwtexas]

One other thing I found out the hard way, is most large hospital have a policy that you can apply if you have large hospital bills that you can not pay. When I had trauma to my arm, I had 10 surgeries, multiple stays (longer was 20 days) etc. Although I had insurance, my share of hospital charges were in excess of $30,000. Hospital agreed to accept my insurance as payment in full.

[flinnigan]

Thats good to know. I'm at $4000.00 my portion so far but it's building. I'll see what they can do, but I'll wait until it gets bigger.

[dfwtexas]

flinnigan
Wait until the majority of your hospital treatment is done and then call the hospital and tell them you need to talk to someone in their financial assistance department. I had to fill out paperwork explaining my situation and had to make several follow up calls....but then I finally got the letter that they were accepting my insurance as payment in full and the balances were all cleared! I never knew they would do that, a man from my church that works with people going thur financial problems due to medical conditions told me that and I couldn't believe it actually was true!

[flinnigan]

Will do. Thanks a lot.

[rackelsmom]

When my daughter was in the hospital for grid surgery and the first resection we were billed for everything at least twice and sometimes three times. I would have never known, but our church offered to help pay some of the bills and our secretary said, "Match your explanation of benefits with the bills and bring them in." Come to find out, they were billing multiple times for each EOB.

When called on it, they explained they had to pay for the unisured patients somehow. That for each person who matches EOB's there are 3 that don't! I was infuriated they put us through that especially after everything we were going through with Rachel medically. I was appalled they admitted they had a slush fund and they were aware of what I assumed was a mistake.

We saved a LOT of money but it took great organization. It's good to know there are advocates out there who can help with that! What a wonderful resource.

[flinnigan]

I've requested my twice now and still no bill/ I'll keep trying.