***Repost*** Be Proactive With Your medical Bills
Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Posted in Financial Stewardship

Over the next few weeks, I'll be reposting some important Financial tips we've learned from the past few years.  They were origionally posted on my old Blog and I find they will be of use to others who are now in the very spot we were in the past 5 years.  These tips can help you as you work towards good Financial Stewardship while also helping you deal with creditors, deep debt, and ways to get rid of it.  May our hard lessons help others and may our way towards financial freedom be a testimony to God!

I just felt the need to warn everyone.

You MUST check your medical bills when they come in.  EVEN the lab bills!  I mentioned several months ago how I caught an overcharge. 3Times the charge before and it was taken off and also several other hospital charges which were put on my husbands credit report as low as 50.00 for not paying (He holds the insurance for both of us) when that too was paid. (The medical establishment along with the credit agency for that are working to write letters to the credit companies to take it off completely.)

The latest medical issue I caught??  I went to my OBGYN had a yearly exam along with an ultrasound of my ovaries because I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, The dr. charged me for the visit, the yearly AND TWO ultrasounds.  I had only one.  The good thing about my Aetna insurance, is that I can look up a claim activity online any hour of any day to make sure it lines up with what I am billed for.

Needless to say, after going around and around with the billing manager who can only be located a couple days a week in a different LONG DISTANCE office, I decided to talk with the practice manager.  I told her I received a bill in the mail for 200.00, but my Aetna Insurance claimed they paid 100 percent and I would only owe 25.00 for the whole bill (my co-insurance).

Want to know what she told me?  You had your yearly, then in the middle of your ultrasound, He decided to go 3D.  I told her the dr. neither told me nor warned that he was doing the 3D instead, and that  it would be billed another 200.00 as if it were done over.  Needless to say, with my good skill of looking at my Claim Statements and checking them with what the bills usually state, I saved being overcharged for a procedure I never was told about nor did I approve.

Ladies and gentlemen, regardless of how nice your dr.'s are, YOU need to be pro-active in your own medical care.  If you aren't for you and your family, then who else will?  Dr.'s are there because it's a business practice, sometimes they throw things in without mentioning there's that added benefit for their own pockets.  It's times like those that you wish you had spoken up before you received a bill of over thousands of dollars of treatment that you still may be paying for!  Our medical treatment, no matter what we may have....a stomach cramp or something as bad as diabetes or other endochrine issues.  If you have an ailment, get on the internet, research treatments and know your body!  Know your claim activity as well so it keeps you from being overcharged for something you did not know about nor approved of having.  Find out what your insuarnce covers and make sure you have a statement at your dr.'s asking that all treatments be covered under your insurance or otherwise stated in writing  for you to approve before ANY treatment.  LAB BILLS, this can be critical if your like me and need labwork done every 3-6 months.  Don't trust the labs, again they are there to make money.  Often, majority of my issues are with Lab Claims that come out, it seems, each lab work comes separately.  I have been charged and charged and charged for the same bill....check the account numbers and make sure you staple like charges with the services and dates you had them together.  THEN check your Claim statements.

If you take a pro-active role in your healthcare AND your billing process (Remember it's OK to say NO to a dr., you hire them....be direct and also know what your insurance company pays for) then you will be on the road to good healthcare and also good stewardship with the money God has given you.  It all correlates together with stewardship if you take a pro-active role.

In the end, I prayed before I even picked up the phone to call.  Doug and I prayed last night, then I prayed again before I called the practice manager and by God and only God's grace, the bill was written off!  I by no means glorify myself with what I had done.  I wouldn't have thought to talk with the practice manager and would have kept getting the run around from someone who only worked part time at another office.  I also wouldn't have thought to compare my statement with the bill at this time.  As scripture says, " with God on our side, what can man do to us?"  TRUST in the Lord to help you through issues as little as a bill.  No matter what, He can handle ALL things!

Much love and many blessings to you all.

Rebekah

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008 - Good post.

Posted by mulberrylane

I sent Dh to the doctor for my daughter's physical. They check her immunizations on the chart and the doctor tells the nurse to get these shots... didn't tell my husband in the room with my daughter. Next thing he knows, they poke her twice and make her take polio and didn't even ask. He not wanting to be impolite just figured it was part of the physical, I guess ??? LOL. Anyways, when he got home, I was HOT.
First, they didn't ask if she had gotten immunizations elsewhere, nor did they even ask for permission to give them. What ended up happening is that my daughter had the updates a year before at the county nurse, but they had the records, not the doctor... so not only did the doctor not check that, she just gave her a double dose of immunizations... OH, I was upset. I wrote a letter to the billing office and office manager and told them that I thought it was horrible that one they gave immunizations without asking. that TWO, they didn't even ask for records. that Three, in town we have an immunization program...$3 a shot where the doctor charged us nearly $200 for the immunizations (not covered by insurance, either)... I wondered where their support for the poor came in when they didn't even mention that you can get them for $3 a shot when insurance didn't cover immunizations...
They refunded us the total amount for the immunizations and thankfully my daughter did not get sick from having a second round of those immunizations so close together.

Warmly, ~Melissa

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