Subject to Change

I just got an accidental call from my grandmother’s cell phone.

Being first in alphabetical order is a curse, I tell you!

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any more mixed up a new letter arrived in the mail to prove us wrong!

The “apology” letter from Wheaton Franciscan was copied to Blue Cross. The first thing I noted about the cc line was that it didn’t include an address so I could follow up with Blue Cross if I chose to do so. As luck would have it, Blue Cross replied on their own!

This letter left us standing there with jaws dropped. Blue Cross admitted to having troubles with a “legacy system” and claimed that they had paid inaccurately. They said the problem is fixed and will no longer be an issue. As far as corporate apologies go, this one is pretty standard. They also said that an additional $7150 was paid toward our claim.

That extra payment is what caused us to stand there in disbelief. According to the initial “appeal,” only $1850 was still owed for services. Blue Cross made a payment on 8/30/07 after we received the “appeal,” wrote a blog, called Wheaton Franciscan, and called Blue Cross (more or less in that order). After that payment our co-pay of $250 was the only remaining balance. We have a number of itemized statements to show that the rest of the birth bill had been paid. There was also the brief period where Wheaton Franciscan double billed us for a co-pay on a second procedure. I mention it because it has been difficult to separate the two incidents ever since.

Curiosity finally got the better of me and I’ve added up all the items on one of the itemized statements. I thought maybe the totals didn’t add up. There could be $7150 in there unaccounted for, I guessed. There wasn’t. According to Wheaton Franciscan’s own documentation only the $1850 was in question. I have no idea what they may have said to Blue Cross to convince them that the outstanding balance was higher.

I want to write a letter to Blue Cross, warning them that they’ve overpaid. We always had good luck dealing with them on this and other issues. I’d hate to see them dragged into what is clearly Wheaton Franciscan’s issue to deal with. I’d also hate to see Wheaton actually rewarded for their mistakes.

Do you think I ought to write the letter, or is it better to just sit on this knowing that I have a letter from both parties telling me I’m off the hook?

Update: Just reread the letter. The payment will be sent on the 29th. So, I still have a chance to intercept it.

Hey! That was my shtick.

“Haiku for the Holidays“

This one made me laugh.

My 21 month-old calls Mickey Mouse “Hot Dog.” It took me a few weeks to figure it out.

I’ll award 10 points to the first person who guesses why.

For those of you who’ve been following the ongoing saga of our fight to clear some medical billing errors, I’ve been sitting on an update since about the time of the presidential election. I waited because I really wanted this to be the final post on the subject. My plan was to include in this post my actual written response to the hospital, because it’s clear to me that they still don’t get it. Unfortunately, I’ve been dilly-dallying and I owe you a status report.

First of all, the hospital sent a letter of apology and a refund for about $50. That was the amount we’d paid so far on the installment plan I put in place to give me time to bargain over the remainder of the reduced co-pay. If you’ll remember, the original “bill” was $1850, which we were able to argue should be only $250. Then the hospital re-billed us $250 for another procedure, bringing the total temporarily up to $500 until we were able to prove that we’d paid for the service immediately. The $250 was reduced twice: once by by the first tier responders and a second time by a manager. After that our co-pay was $150 on installments.

I never did blog about the conversation I had with that manager, either. She was nice enough, in spite of all the abuse I gave her over the phone. I told her that I really just wanted the hospital to understand that they’d made some serious errors and to acknowledge them in some convincing way. I stressed two thing: I don’t feel like I owe a dime, especially considering the amount of effort I had to put into correcting their mistakes; and second, I really want someone with some authority to acknowledge what’s happened here. On a side note, if somebody wants to correct my punctuation on that previous sentence I’d love to know how I close I came to proper grammar.

That’s the end of the good news. I’d like to be more excited about the result, but I can’t be. The letter of apology only served to demonstrate that the system is flawed from the bottom up. It pointed fingers at the insurance company over the initial bill for $1850, saying that it was an appeal for our help. As I’ve mentioned before, these “appeals” look EXACTLY like a bill, unless you read the fine print and notice that there’s no due date. I’d bet my first born that a large percentage of these simply get paid by the patient without an argument, especially if they’re for a small dollar amount.

They also claimed that the insurance has not fully paid yet. I find that odd, because I demanded itemized bills. I haven’t done the math on them yet. What I do see, though, is an insurance payment right at the time we contacted them about the appeal. There’s also a final line item: balance due. Ever since we made the effort, on the hospital’s behalf, to contact our insurer that amount has been $250 or less. I don’t see how anyone can claim that the insurance company hasn’t paid up if the amount due was our co-pay.

The more disturbing item in the letter was the complete blow-off of the double billing for the second procedure. That was very clearly a mistake on the part of their billing department. The letter acknowledges that the mistake was made and without an apology states that the error was corrected. This clearly indicates to me that management is comfortable with mediocrity. We won’t be returning to this particular health care provider if we can avoid it and we’ll continue to recommend that our friends go elsewhere.

I know that this whole episode has been a learning experience for me. Hopefully it was for you, too. I learned that I need to save and organize every statement, letter, and transaction from now on. I’d been filing things, but I need more order. I also learned that I need to keep those records for two years, because I was told by one of the managers that they legally have two years to bill for services. That seems more than a little silly, but at least there is a cut-off somewhere! That also means I shouldn’t shred my credit card bills and receipts after one year, as recommended by identity protection experts. If I had shredded by credit card bills, there would have been no way for me to prove I’d paid for the extra procedure seventeen months later. I would have had an impossible time locating the payment. Also note, never pay a medical bill in cash! Demand final statements and any supporting documents you can get your hands on.

Have you wondered lately what Jason is up to?

I’ve been wondering ever since Saint Anger.

Hugs and Kisses,

Aaron

That would explain why she seems to think she’s entitled to my lunch.

1991 – Apple released Quicktime Version 1. They’ve been pestering me to go Pro ever since.

2001 – Enron filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Look how far we’ve come.