July 17, 201511 yr ...related to my hip surgery in March. $545.00. Just one among several. Got ready to make a payment on it, and saw at the bottom of the bill..."Your insurance has denied this claim because coverage ended before the service was performed". Well, this is odd. Mostly because it's just not true, it's a false statement. So I call up today, get a hold of Anthem, they call the provider, and wouldn't you know it, good news! The provider has either transposed some numbers or entered them wrong somehow, whatever the case they didn't have my correct information from my insurance card. This caused my bill to kick out and never go through the claims process. They now have the correct info and looks like I might not have to pay any of this, or a significantly lesser portion of it anyway. Morale of the story...doesn't hurt to call if you aren't sure about something or something doesn't look right. Probably just saved myself a few hundred dollars.
July 17, 201511 yr In my imagination, insurance companies have entire departments of people whose job is to "misplace" key documents or "mistype" important numbers on forms. :lol2:
July 17, 201511 yr TRUST ME, I know all about billing. I also know that most hospitals have up to a 15% discount if you pay in full over the phone. We saved a TON of money doing that.
July 17, 201511 yr TRUST ME, I know all about billing. I also know that most hospitals have up to a 15% discount if you pay in full over the phone. We saved a TON of money doing that. Funny timing. I got off the phone 10 minutes ago and did just that.
July 17, 201511 yr So last year I switched my plan to a HRA for cheaper premiums. The catch is I have to pay the first $3000 before the insurance kicks in. My company pays the first $1500 and I'm saving more than $1500 on premiums so good deal for me. The only draw back is I have to call on just about every bill we have because Horizon denies the claim. It's not even their money yet and they still do it. The same kind of crap BigV is talking about.
July 17, 201511 yr My wife owed a hefty bill more than a thousand, and I called and got a 25% discount if paid within 30 days. Also, I once owed a hospital a bill for $600 or so and I called and questioned it. They wrote the entire bill off.
July 17, 201511 yr All insurance is a scam. I understand but will disagree on a small level. Car insurance for example, I pay practically nothing for it anymore, been with the same company my entire life, agent does a great job, always there if/when I need them. The wife on the other hand, we dont talk about what her insurance is lol. With any insurance you have to be on top of it, making sure its the right deal for you.
July 17, 201511 yr Author All insurance is a scam. Insurance is a scam. Won't go quite that far, but I will say let the government get more involved with it (as will probably happen with health insurance) and we will ALL be wishing for the "good old days".
July 18, 201511 yr Hospital mark ups are huge....why do you think they are more than happy to give that discount.
July 18, 201511 yr When it comes to medical bills, NEGOTIATE. I just learned this a month ago. To make a long story short I had a stress test in May (sorry to say for some of you, everything turned out fine:)). Got the bill for just the machines, not the doctor. For about 45 minutes of time, the bill was $3,300! I just thought that was crazy. I called and was told to write the office manager a letter saying I did not think that was correct. I offered her $1,500 to pay it immediately (thinking it was a good starting point of negotiations). She called me the next day and said if I paid via credit card that day, they would take the $1,500. I did. I should have offered $1,000. I felt like I was haggling for a new car but to save $1,800, I will do it...
July 18, 201511 yr I tend not to be a very detailed oriented person – good for you for noticing the fine print. Sometimes I wonder how much I’ve overpaid for not doing so. We are currently in the process of getting things in order to pay college tuition this Fall. We noticed a hefty gap between tuition due and the Fin Aid we were expecting. Upon digging into it we noticed the college was charging the 3 credit hour price for 1 hour labs, in 2 separate cases. What the heck? Would’ve thought their “tuition charging programs” would auto catch that. Thanks goodness we took the time to dig in and report the $3k mistake.
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