So I had to pay a bill today . . .

[indianasmith]

When I got my colonoscopy last spring, I was assured that the $750 copay would be all that we owed.  But, starting this summer, the hospital billed me for nearly $2K.  After telling them to re-file with the insurance several times and getting the same bill back multiple times, I finally sent them a payment today, along with this note:

TO:   The Hunt Memorial Hospital Bill Collecting Brigade

FROM:  Lewis B. Smith, Esq.

RE: The $1922.41 bill for my colonoscopy

Enclosed please find my first payment of $200 for the above-mentioned procedure.  My wife’s insurance company had assured me that the colonoscopy would be fully covered after I made my $700+ co-pay at the time of the procedure.  However, they, like all insurers, appear to be treacherous, lying sacks of rhinoceros poop.  This leaves me on the hook for your (rather sizable) bill.  Since I do not have $1922.41 lying around at the moment, please accept this $200 as an initial payment and send me a bill for the remaining balance next month.  I will pay this off as quickly as my precarious financial status allows.

   If, however, you really need payment in full, feel free to repeatedly bill and harass my wife’s insurance company until they cough it up.  I have found that veiled threats to family members and pets can work wonders.  Sorry to have been so delinquent in making this first payment;   I made the mistake of believing a health insurance rep actually told me the truth.

Sincerely,
Lewis Smith

[Rev. Powell]

Sorry that happened, Indy.  Most likely they are continuing to negotiate with your insurance and will relent if you don't pay them. They tried to charge me a ridiculous amount for my hernia surgery years ago, I ignored the bills and eventually received notice that they had settled with the insurance and I owed nothing more.

[chainsaw midget]

When I went to the hospital last year I had a pretty big bill. 

Six months later, I got some papers in the mail telling me I filled out something wrong (I don't remember filling it out at all) and to resubmit it.  I filled it out, sent it in, couple weeks later got another letter telling me it was wrong.  I filled it back in the same way, sent it back, and a few weeks after that, I got some checks in the mail refunding part of my expenses. 

What I'm getting at is, don't give up hope.  Medical bills and insurance can be weird.

[Alex]

The first time we went to a hospital in the states, we gave them our insurance information, got seen (and they failed to pick up on the signs of a common and minor medical condition, but that is another story), it took a year for the bill to get paid. It wasn't the insurance company that was the problem, it was the hospital. They wouldn't accept the money. We were getting sent letters threatening court action and eventually, the insurance company actually asked us to forward the letters to them so they could take action against the hospital should they continue to cause problems.

When an insurance company is the good guy in a situation then something is badly messed up.

[ER]

So many companies are not hiring the most qualified people these days, and it shows. I know someone who got billed for having twins when she only had one baby, and the hospital put her baby down as a girl when she'd had a boy, and also billed for staying two days longer than she did. They also misspelled her last name. It took her weeks to get it straightened out and then more trouble getting all this off her credit report.

She did not have your flair for sending in a great letter, though, indy!

[Paquita]

Not sure if this helps, but I’ve been a benefits admin for my company for 10+ years and have overridden insurance company decisions a few times, especially when we can prove that someone had been told they’d pay something different in error either by us or the insurance company.  Assuming your wife’s insurance is through her employer, if the medical plan is self-insured, her company HR/Benefits dept should have the authority to override the decision (no guarantee that they will though).  If it’s a fully-insured plan, there may not be much they can do if someone told you something in error, but if you can provide documentation of the $750 co-pay you were told I expect they would at least look into it with their contacts at the insurance company which should be way more helpful than any CSR you get on the phone when calling yourself.   Even if you were told over the phone they may have the call recorded and logged (the insurance companies I have worked with do that).  OR if you have medical plan documents, like a benefit guide, summary plan description, etc. that shows the co-pay amounts for preventive care or specifically a colonoscopy as a $750 co-pay that could be a slam-dunk for you - it's Open Enrollment season now so these documents should be circulating again.

On the other hand, $750 seems way high for a co-pay for a standard preventive procedure so I’m not sure what kind of plan this is.  Some reasons I can think of that you would correctly have to pay more than the co-pay would be if the co-pay kicks in after you hit your deductible and the person you spoke to didn’t bother to check if you had, the provider was out-of-network and you were quoted the amount for an in-network provider, or you’ve had more than one colonoscopy within the timeframe allowed by the plan.

As chainsaw midget pointed out though, it could be a mis-coding thing somewhere in the claims process.  And as Alex pointed out too, the insurance company should work with the hospital to figure out the issue if it’s with them, they just might need some nudging.