The Patient Who Knew Too Much, part 2
After the meeting on Monday, the Webmaster opened up the mail (I hadn’t had the time to go through it earlier). “Uh-oh,” I heard him say. “Honey? We’ve got a bill from the lab.”
Yes, a bill from the lab. The bill that was supposed to have been paid by the right insurance but submitted to our old one by the doctor’s office. “I’ll take care of it tomorrow,” I told him, and left it on my desk.
Someone is going to feel my wrath, I vowed.
So, with Baby Boy chewing on my shoulder, I called the lab yesterday morning. I actually didn’t have to wait on hold very long, which was a pleasant surprise. I gave the billing clerk my information and the account number, and she looked it up. “Yes, it was denied,” she said.
“Did you receive a call from (family practicioner’s clinic) to have it rebilled to the correct insurance?” I asked.
“Yes, and that was denied.”
“What???” I yelped. “You mean that (current insurance company) denied the claim!?”
“It says here that they said that coverage was not in effect at the time of service,” she said.
“Ohhhh, yes it was,” I told her. We mutually confirmed the identification number and group number from my insurance card, and then I said, “They have already processed and paid for his office visit for that date. Please resubmit it again.”
“All right,” she agreed, “but I just hope that they don’t deny it this time because they think it’s a duplicate bill.”
“I’ll contact them,” I told her, and hung up. I then placed a call to our insurance company. I got put on hold almost immediately, waiting for “the next available customer representative” to come on the line and answer my questions.
In the meantime, the Munchkin was begging me to make lunch and Baby Boy had decided that my shoulder was no longer an adequate teether. He wanted food, too. Then the hold music had a pleasant voice-over that said, “We are experiencing a large number of calls this January. You can access your account to check claim status on (website address), or stay on the line…” blah blah blah.
So, with a upset baby on one arm, and the phone still tucked between my head and my shoulder, I got on the computer, got on the website, created an account, and checked the status of the claim all before the next representative was available. I hung up, still on hold.
The claim, according to the website, is processed and paid… as of the next day.
I immediately called the lab back. “Don’t bother rebilling,” I told the clerk. “According to the claim’s status, it’s been processed and paid as of tomorrow.”
“Okay, then, we’ll just wait for the payment,” she told me.
The whole thing was really strange. But at least now it’s taken care of. I hope. At any rate, when the Webmaster goes back in come April or so, he says he plans on being really obnoxious about asking if they have the correct insurance information.
And yes, everyone had a nice lunch and nap after all of this hullabaloo – even me.
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