Ineptitude (1/20/15)
The ineptitude a patient is subjected to when dealing with insurance companies and the entire financial sector of healthcare should be criminal. On average I spend 30 hours per invoice trying to resolve issues where someone simply didn’t do their job and as a result the patient, in this particular instance that would be me, has to pay the price.
I have an ongoing bill for a hospital visit that was not processed properly, and as a result it was improperly sent to a collection agency. In all fairness the two insurance companies that were fighting over who was “first to pay” dragged their feet forever. The portion of the bill that was to be covered by insurance was paid in October 2014 at which time I should have been re-invoiced by the hospital for the portion of the bill that I was responsible for. I wasn’t. In November 2014 I got a call from the collection agency saying I owed them roughly $7,000. I played 12 hours of phone tag to make sure I knew what my portion of the bill actually was, what procedure needed to be followed and then I paid the collection agency the portion of the bill that I was responsible for, which amounted to about $250.
Still the incompetence of the hospital and collection agency continued as the collection agency tried to extort me for money they were not due. Had a common person been seeking out financial compensation, that they weren’t entitled to, over the phone like the collection agency was I believe the technical term for that behavior is wire fraud. At this point in time after my last harassing phone call I quite calmly told the woman on the other end of the line, “I have paid what I was legally required to pay. At this point in time I’m tired of you harassing me for money you are not entitled to, and if you contact me again the next person you hear from will be my legal counsel.” Maybe someone will finally do their job, go back into their files and apply the insurance companies’ transaction and close out this bill. Personally I could care less because my credit is already hit by the fact that I was illegally sent to collections.
Then there was my disability company who sent me a lovely threatening email about how I had to contact them by January 22, 2015 or they would be terminating benefits. I love bullies!!! I love the way they think no one will stand up to them. The first time I was threatened by this bully I was required to sue him to maintain my benefits. It cost $2,000, but I won. It was funny when I stood up the first time the poor associate on the other end of the phone was dumbfounded. It was like he expected me to just roll over and die. Well sorry to disappoint you.
As for the disability company’s new complaint that I was unreachable. I received two phone calls from them in late October/early November 2014. In response I made five calls trying to resolve the issues at hand. The bully was requesting a release form they needed signed so they could contact Social Security. The bully never actually sent the form. When I inquired about getting a copy of the form I was told the form couldn’t be emailed; it had to be mailed. Well when I didn’t receive a copy of the form on my third attempt I found a copy of said form on their website, printed it out and submitted it. So I was a little surprised to be getting the bully threat mail. So I called the bully up.
“Sir how are things going?”
“Let’s see…I got a threatening letter that told me I needed to contact you because I was so unreachable. I have made 5 phone calls trying to resolve the only issue I was I aware that I needed to handle, which was a release form for Social Security. That release form was signed and sent off while I was laying in my hospital room.”
“Ooohh. I’m so sorry to hear that. What Happened?”
“The first time I was admitted for 10 days before Christmas for massive dehydration. The EMTs picked me up at 1:39am. The second time I was admitted for a GI blockage for 5 days.”
“Well I was just trying to follow up to see how things were going…..”
As I lay in bed thinking about what new experiences 2015 will be ushering in I’d like to thank the arrogant brain trust in Washington who came up with the UnAffordable Healthcare Act. I realize that you have the integrity of Bernie Madoff so getting you to admit that your healthcare reform was actually about hijacking 1/3 of the US economy to move America to within arms reach of being an openly socialist/communist state and not about actually fixing the healthcare crisis in this country is out of the question. So as one of the many people whose life has actually gotten worse as a direct result of your ineptitude I would like to thank God that I only have to suffer your unbearable arrogance for another 727 days.
