In getting mail yesterday i had a letter from a collection agency. I opened and found a debt from a medical visit i had to a local ER in January.
I had to wait until today as the billing group was in another time zone. I was confused as I had NEVER
received a bill and my insurance did not either.
I called today and waited 40 minutes to talk to a representative.
I laid out the scene no EOB as insurance never was billed/ no bill ever reaching me... and immediate turn over to collection. I told her i thought this was a poor business practice if this was their standard operational procedure.
My complaint is in trying to justify the representative resorted to illogical claims.
1.rep claim: "There was no insurance listed"... well this would be a subcontractor to the hospital so the hospital is the source of information.... other groups like hospital and radiology had correct information so this group was the ONLY one that did not have it or perhaps ask for it.
2. Rep claim "a bill was sent to patient and returned to them by post office" the address she had was deliverable so I doubted that and asked why no information was checked and her last illogical claim was they cannot call out to verify any information.
If a bill was returned i have never heard of company that did not verify address.
Perhaps regular reps cannot call out but find it odd since medical billing can have many small errors like transposed numbers etc .... that Someone should be researching the claims instead of fast track to a collection group.
I am debating sending a letter to medical group to inform them that this was very poor practice and as billing group represents them they should review where the ball was dropped.
I wonder if it will fall on deaf ears...I would like to think this may save someone else the time and aggravation.
The rep claims she is pulling from collection will bill insurance and correct address ( there was no issue) to mail bill after insurance is cleared.
I find it especially disturbing as medical debt is a huge problem in this country and some people do not fight to clear up a cascade of errors.
what happened to customer service
June 17th, 2020 at 05:41 pm
June 17th, 2020 at 06:39 pm 1592419197
June 17th, 2020 at 07:32 pm 1592422328
I know this was a very large screw up ... I NEVER received a bill EVER neither did my insurance ..... but I looked up the listed creditor (it is emergency room doctors group) from the letter from collection agency, then I looked medical practice website and found the billing contact.
So yes, I was speaking to the correct billing group. While I understand that many practices use these billing services I think they should perhaps review the process or go back to in-house billing to have better control.
June 17th, 2020 at 08:38 pm 1592426309
June 20th, 2020 at 06:24 pm 1592677492