I can relate to this, in a small way, after I spent a few days in the hospital for something minor earlier this year. It turned out that the hospital I went to was in-network for my insurance, but...
I can relate to this, in a small way, after I spent a few days in the hospital for something minor earlier this year.
It turned out that the hospital I went to was in-network for my insurance, but the ER in the same goddamn hospital was out-of-network. So I ended up spending more out of pocket for a few hours in the ER than I did for a 4-day subsequent hospital stay.
My favorite dumb little factoid of the whole experience is that the ER also turned out to be an entirely separate company, according to the bills I got. And the company billing me for a stay in this ER in Seattle is headquarted in...Oklahoma. I'm sure there's some regulatory or legal loophole for that, similar to why every corporation in the US is registered in Delaware.
Oh man, you're giving me flashbacks here ... I once had a piece of glass removed from my foot (the walk-in clinic I went to first turned me away because they were closing...). So the ER (I learned...
Oh man, you're giving me flashbacks here ... I once had a piece of glass removed from my foot (the walk-in clinic I went to first turned me away because they were closing...). So the ER (I learned months later) improperly filed one of the procedure codes, which caused the insurance company's claims approval firm consider them duplicates and deny the charge.
I spent about a few hours a week for literally months calling the (count them) four companies involved: the insurance company, the ER's billing department (similarly HQ'd across the country), the insurance company's outsourced approval department, and the hospital itself. None of them would ever call the others to sort it out, and every time I called they'd ask me for my number to call me back at (which, predictably, they never did). Eventually, I paid the bill to avoid some rather serious late fees heading my way, and I had to call my states' insurance protection bureau to get it sorted out. They of course ruled in my favor, but I'm still waiting years later to get my fucking refund.
Hell is too kind a place for large, purposefully incompetent bureaucracies.
I can relate to this, in a small way, after I spent a few days in the hospital for something minor earlier this year.
It turned out that the hospital I went to was in-network for my insurance, but the ER in the same goddamn hospital was out-of-network. So I ended up spending more out of pocket for a few hours in the ER than I did for a 4-day subsequent hospital stay.
My favorite dumb little factoid of the whole experience is that the ER also turned out to be an entirely separate company, according to the bills I got. And the company billing me for a stay in this ER in Seattle is headquarted in...Oklahoma. I'm sure there's some regulatory or legal loophole for that, similar to why every corporation in the US is registered in Delaware.
Oh man, you're giving me flashbacks here ... I once had a piece of glass removed from my foot (the walk-in clinic I went to first turned me away because they were closing...). So the ER (I learned months later) improperly filed one of the procedure codes, which caused the insurance company's claims approval firm consider them duplicates and deny the charge.
I spent about a few hours a week for literally months calling the (count them) four companies involved: the insurance company, the ER's billing department (similarly HQ'd across the country), the insurance company's outsourced approval department, and the hospital itself. None of them would ever call the others to sort it out, and every time I called they'd ask me for my number to call me back at (which, predictably, they never did). Eventually, I paid the bill to avoid some rather serious late fees heading my way, and I had to call my states' insurance protection bureau to get it sorted out. They of course ruled in my favor, but I'm still waiting years later to get my fucking refund.
Hell is too kind a place for large, purposefully incompetent bureaucracies.