Received a bill and no insurance made a payment

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
I had a bone density scan done a few weeks ago. Today I received a bill for it. It seemed high for having two insurance plans and I didn't see anywhere on the bill that either had made a payment. I called the number shown on the bill for payment questions. The person I talked with said I had no record of my having medical insurance! I told him what I had over the phone and he said they would submit it for payment and to ignore today's bill until it was straightened out. Sometimes it pays to be alert and to follow up on things.

I am at a loss to explain why my insurance info was not in their records. The first thing they ask to see in a doctor's office is your insurance cards.
 

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Oh that must have been a bit of a shock. This can happen however.

With two insurance plans, I have to assume you will pay little. It should all get worked out.
 
if the scan was a second party ... labs / x-rays etc often are separate bills ..
they should get the insurance information from the original doctor....
i had this happen when i visited the hospital ...
3 out of 4 groups had the information but the last group ( er doctors) never bothered to check with the hospital who had all paperwork copy of card etc........ I asked specifically why hospitals send 1 person around to gather information ..... and how 3 of the 4 managed to do it but not them?

many bill and then you have to go back and forth and provide information after the fact .......... not only being alert ......but know what you are responsible for is a must .........
 
Similar situation here. I had a physical last week. I chose not to go on Medicare in 2023 but instead go on my partner's plan with United Healthcare. I received a call from my doctor's office asking if I was on Medicare. I told them, no, I am using United Healthcare. They said whoever was doing the billing made a mistake and they will resubmit the claim. :unsure:
 
Pappy said:
Itā€™s like when you visit a new doctor and spend an hour filling out a form. It goes in your file and stays there. Then the nurse asks you the same questions and so does the doctor. I donā€™t think they ever look at your paper work.
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Itā€™s extra time that they can waste at your expense instead of doing what they are paid for.
 
I've got a similar situation happening. I've got MediCare and a supplemental ins. which hasn't changed for years. I go in every 6 months and have for years for a shot to help with calcium. All of a sudden, time before last, the hospital where the shot is done is billing me for the shot, not either MediCare of the supplemental ins. So I call the hospital and they say it's not their fault, that I need to call the suppl. ins. company. So I do and the ins. co. says, ok they'll contact the hospital to get it straightened out. I contacted the ins. co. yesterday and she says she's called the hospital 3 times now and all she ever gets is voicemail and she's left a message all 3 times and has heard nothing. So I guess Monday, I'd better start calling the hospital too. So frustrating.
 
Imagine a system where every Doctor's office has a computer that can access your complete medical history, by simply scanning your Health Card ? A system that remembers all of your medical history, your past medical procedures, your allergies, and what medications you are taking, and which Doctor prescribed them to you ?

Imagine a system where you go to the lab, have blood drawn in the morning, and the results arrive in your email in box, the same day ? A system where you get email reminders about your up coming appointments, and what to do before you arrive at the hospital, in terms of preparing for your treatment ?

A system where Doctors call you in person, to discuss your medical care, or do video conferencing with you, via your computer, in real time ? Or a system that sends a Doctor to see you at home, if you cannot get to the hospital, at no charge to you ? Or a system that sends paramedics to do wellness checks on elderly people, on a regular schedule, at no charge to the patient ?

Those are some of the benefits of living in Ontario. JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Imagine a system where every Doctor's office has a computer that can access your complete medical history, by simply scanning your Health Card ? A system that remembers all of your medical history, your past medical procedures, your allergies, and what medications you are taking, and which Doctor prescribed them to you ? Imagine a system where you go to the lab, have blood drawn in the morning, and the results arrive in your email in box, the same day ? A system where you get email reminders about your up coming appointments, and what to do before you arrive at the hospital, in terms of preparing for your treatment ? A system where Doctors call you in person, to discuss your medical care, or do video conferencing with you, via your computer, in real time ? Or a system that sends a Doctor to see you at home, if you cannot get to the hospital, at no charge to you ? Or a system that sends paramedics to do wellness checks on elderly people, on a regular schedule, at no charge to the patient ?
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I can see a lot of benefits to that. Here sharing medical information is a bit of a problem because of privacy laws, I am not sure that works to our advantage.

I have heard it is harder to get appointments and schedule things in Canada than it is here. Do you think that's true?

I have been impressed with how easy it is here. For example I recently got x-rays and an MRI on my neck. I was able to get it done locally within a day or so of my first call. And when I had knee surgery I could pretty much pick the day I wanted, scheduled it right after a fishing trip. I think we generally have pretty good medical services here, if you can afford them. For me Medicare and my supplemental covers almost everything.
 
Alligatorob said:
I can see a lot of benefits to that. Here sharing medical information is a bit of a problem because of privacy laws, I am not sure that works to our advantage.

I have heard it is harder to get appointments and schedule things in Canada than it is here. Do you think that's true?

I have been impressed with how easy it is here. For example I recently got x-rays and an MRI on my neck. I was able to get it done locally within a day or so of my first call. And when I had knee surgery I could pretty much pick the day I wanted, scheduled it right after a fishing trip. I think we generally have pretty good medical services here, if you can afford them. For me Medicare and my supplemental covers almost everything.
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Scheduling is a matter of where you live. I live in Toronto, the largest city in Canada. If you live in a small town in the north, with 5,000 population things will be different. The small towns are tied together with a microwave TV network, that allows local Doctors to consult with Doctors in the larger cities. Ontario also has a Province wide air ambulance program, to fly patients down to the bigger cities for treatment. That service is no cost to the patients. Patient privacy is maintained by restricting access to medical staff that have to provide their unique identity number before they can get into the record system. Every time I have a contact with the system, I have to provide my date of birth and my full name to the person I am dealing with. This is to make sure the right treatment is being provided to the right person.

I maintain a white board on the fridge at home that lists my upcoming appointments, and procedures. Looking at it right now, I see that I have appointments in July, August, and October, for various things, and some annual appointments in 2024 . JimB.
 
jimintoronto said:
Imagine a system where every Doctor's office has a computer that can access your complete medical history, by simply scanning your Health Card ? A system that remembers all of your medical history, your past medical procedures, your allergies, and what medications you are taking, and which Doctor prescribed them to you ? Imagine a system where you go to the lab, have blood drawn in the morning, and the results arrive in your email in box, the same day ? A system where you get email reminders about your up coming appointments, and what to do before you arrive at the hospital, in terms of preparing for your treatment ? A system where Doctors call you in person, to discuss your medical care, or do video conferencing with you, via your computer, in real time ? Or a system that sends a Doctor to see you at home, if you cannot get to the hospital, at no charge to you ? Or a system that sends paramedics to do wellness checks on elderly people, on a regular schedule, at no charge to the patient ?

Those are some of the benefits of living in Ontario. JimB.
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Sounds like you're dreaming of a lovely blend of old and new systems. Old in the sense that a doctor shows up at your door and new in the sense that all systems have your history in their 'files'.
 
Alligatorob said:
I can see a lot of benefits to that. Here sharing medical information is a bit of a problem because of privacy laws, I am not sure that works to our advantage.

I have heard it is harder to get appointments and schedule things in Canada than it is here. Do you think that's true?

I have been impressed with how easy it is here. For example I recently got x-rays and an MRI on my neck. I was able to get it done locally within a day or so of my first call. And when I had knee surgery I could pretty much pick the day I wanted, scheduled it right after a fishing trip. I think we generally have pretty good medical services here, if you can afford them. For me Medicare and my supplemental covers almost everything.
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We've always appreciated our medical care personally. I know there are people who complain, but after our most recent experience, we will never, ever complain of the 'small stuff'.

Years ago, one doctor told my husband his 'yellowish' eyes were due to his many years of working outdoors in all weather, he said he had 'weathered' eyes. Then during covid, we finally got signed on with a new doctor and when my husband started complaining about starting to feel nauseous a lot, that doctor just gave him a prescription for an anti-nausea drug. Sort of a glorified Gravol but in pill form. He took those for a year and a half.

Then we moved to Alberta and when he needed a refill for the anti-nausea, we started going to a nurse practitioner's office (couldn't find a doctor who was taking new patients) and the first thing she did was a whole raft of blood tests, just to get a baseline on our health situation. As a result, she ultimately discovered that he had Hepatitis B and that his liver was severely compromised. That was a rough weekend, BUT the good news is, there is a cure now for Hep B and while the two month series of pills costs $60,000.00, we had moved to a province where seniors have Blue Cross medical coverage and those pills cost us nothing!

Between the new little grandson and those pills, our ambivalence about moving to this province is not what it might have been. We're so grateful at this point that we're not too sad about the occasional -30 degree winter week (or two).
 
debodun said:
They tried socialized medicine in the U.S. a few years ago. Remember Obamacare? That was a flop.
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FYI....."The Affordable Care Act has been described in terms of socialized medicine, but the act's objective is rather socialized insurance, not government ownership of hospitals and other facilities as is common in other nations. " Quoted from Wikipedia

"Socialized medicine is, by definition, a healthcare system in which the government owns and operates healthcare facilities and employs the healthcare professionals, thus also paying for all healthcare services." What is socialized medicine? | healthinsurance.org

"No, Obamacare is not socialized medicine. Obamacare is another name for the Affordable Care Act, although people also often use the term Obamacare to refer to health plans sold through the health insurance exchange in each state. These plans are offered by private health insurers such as Anthem, Kaiser, Cigna, Ambetter, Oscar, and UnitedHealthcare. And the doctors and hospitals that participate in their networks are also privately run, each with their own insurance contracts." This is the link: What is socialized medicine? | healthinsurance.org

It is NOT a flop, either. It's helping millions of people that can't afford health insurance. Why do you think the GOP is trying desperately to get rid of it? Because they could care less about people and care more about making money for themselves. Do your research before you make statements like this.
 
I know a few people that didnā€™t have decent health insurance through their employer so were eligible for ACA coverage which saved their lives. One young person had a brain tumor and needed a specialist in another state to operate on a baseball sized tumor wrapped around her brain stem.

Itā€™s not just for poor people as I know people that retired early and pay a lot for the coverage. Itā€™s nice that people can have insurance not linked to their employment.
 
Teacher Terry said:
I know a few people that didnā€™t have decent health insurance through their employer so were eligible for ACA coverage which saved their lives.
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Sort of the same here: my niece-in-law needs heart valve surgery and if it weren't for ACA, she wouldn't be able to have the surgery at all.

And if you're thinking she doesn't have health insurance other than ACA because she doesn't work? Wrong. She manages 2 restaurants. If you're thinking why doesn't she get a better job? She lives in a tiny mountain town where are just about no jobs. If you're thinking why doesn't she move to where there are more jobs? She's got relatives where she lives, one being her elderly father, she needs to take of.

So stuff is usually more complicated than some people think.
 
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