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Linda
Brandwin, R.N.
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Linda
Brandwin
is a registered nurse and a medical billing
and claims specialist. For the past 10 years
she has worked directly with insurance companies
to give advice and guidance to the health care
consumer.
Readers may send email
or write Linda Brandwin at 5500 Single Oak Hill
Ct., Woodbridge, VA 22192.
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Document
all conversations regarding your bills
Nov. 5, 2004
Q:
I
got a bill from a local hospital for visits dating back
two, three and four years ago. I had major surgery four
years ago and the bill was quite large. We submitted
a budget application plan to the hospital at that time.
We did not receive a response from them. I kept calling
the hospital every month for almost two years regarding
this bill. The lady in charge of the billing department
told me that she was processing this claim and would
call us in a month if we owed any money. We never heard
anything else.
In
the meantime, my son received treatment from this hospital.
We received a bill for this visit and set up monthly
payments. We paid on this bill for a year. We were not
notified of any open accounts. Then, about five months
ago, we received a bill totaling over $3000.00 for visits
in the past. We had assumed these charges were written
off and that we were not responsible for them.
I
called the hospital and told them the circumstances.
They ignored me and demanded monthly payments. I would
like to know if we are really responsible for these
bills since we were never notified at the time of our
visits. They never tried to collect this money until
years later.
A:
Lately
I have been receiving a lot of complaints regarding
delayed billing by hospitals. Maybe it is just that
time of year that hospitals are trying to clean up their
bookkeeping and reconciling their records. I just don't
understand it. The longer a hospital waits to bill a
patient, the less chance they have of collecting payments.
And if they don't submit bills to insurance companies
within a certain time framework, the insurance companies
may no longer be responsible for those bills. They would
have to be written off. It makes no sense why a hospital
would not call you back and accept your budget for the
payments you wanted to make.
First,
if you have health insurance, call that company and
confirm that the amount you are being billed for is
accurate.
Next
call the billing supervisor and not only explain what
has happened, but ask why they delayed billing you for
four years. They have an obligation to bill patients
in a timely fashion. Four years is not even close to
being appropriate. If they still insist that you owe
this money, contact their public relations department.
They also should be informed about this situation.
Also
you may want to inform your state medical board of the
billing practices of the hospital. They, along with
your attorney general's office, may be able to tell
you what your legal obligations are regarding this bill.
And,
please, always remember to document all conversations
you have regarding your bills. It makes no difference
if it is the attorney general's office, the hospital
or the insurance company. Always write down the date,
time, to whom you spoke and what they told you. Keep
this information on file so you can easily refer to
it at any time. This detailed documentation will be
one of your best tools for resolving billing issues.
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