Thursday, September 1, 2011

NCH Payment Update

Thank you all for the comments and suggestions and prayers!

One of the biggest problems is that in this case it isn't that our insurance won't pay.  They will.  It's that the doctors and staff won't bill our insurance (the hospital itself does, but apparently their staff and labs don't... we specifically called and left another hospital, closer to our home, because they didn't...).  It's so frustrating because we'd been very careful researching the insurance issue before we left for the hospital.

But what can you do?

I do have a little hopeful news.  My dad called and talked to the payment company after my hysterical call, while Paul was in a meeting with a professor.  In the beginning the woman he spoke with just listened.  Then he got to the part about no one coming into the room and the actual miscarriage and she gasped.  Apparently the culturally overused: "OMG!" was her next response.

So it really was that bad.

She then told him to have me write everything out, in detail from beginning to end and send it to them.  And she put a note on the bills saying that they were being disputed.  Hopefully the letter I write will be used to forgive some or all of the bills.

I am especially thankful that I wrote that blog the day after the miscarriage.  Now I can go back and add all the awful details in, but the bulk of what happened was written when it was fresh in my mind.

Now to get the bunnies to bed.  It's half an hour after bedtime and they are still bouncing off the walls.

Sadie was on my lap when I saw the bills and burst into tears and said:  "Mommy, why are you crying?" and then "I want to make you happy!"

And they do.

6 comments:

  1. It's that the doctors and staff won't bill our insurance (the hospital itself does, but apparently their staff and labs don't...

    What?! How is that even legal? If they're working AS EMPLOYEES of the hospital, how can they refuse to bill the same insurance plans that the hospital does?!

    I'm glad you're fighting it!

    You know, this almost makes me grateful we were on Medicaid when I had my first miscarriage... we didn't have to pay a dime after the D&C (and a good thing too, given how poor we were at the time).

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  2. Can you send the bills to your insurance yourself? I know that we had to do that back in the dark ages when I was pregnant with my first and we had insurance through the carpenter's union. Someplace we still have a file folder full of copies of the stuff that we had to submit to the insurance company. Makes for good reading now because what we considered a phenomenal amount of money to pay for what was considered a high risk pregnancy is now less than what a routine vaginal delivery would cost now. But we really did have to do all the paperwork ourselves. Second baby, high risk again (for different reasons) insurance with the state employees group, we did no paperwork at all, just gave them our insurance information and they covered everything (literally - we paid $137 towards the entire bill (which ran over $25,000). Such is the advantage of having an insurance they do bill.

    However, I truly don't understand how the staff and labs have different policies on insurance than the hospital as a whole. If they were separate labs or doctors who merely had privileges at the hospital it would make sense, but if it's the hospital's lab and doctors who actually work in their ER's it doesn't. I do know that here, however, some work does get farmed out, so that the radiologist who reads the xray isn't part of the hospital and you get billed separately for his services. Maybe the pathology lab was like that...

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  3. I'm glad that you plan to dispute, and that you carefully documented your appalling treatment (or lack thereof.) I am also baffled that docs and the lab won't bill (or accept?) your insurance. Very confusing.

    Serious billing errors occur on hospital bills all the time. Go over the bill with a fine-tooth comb and contest everything that doesn't seem right. The fact that you were treated so shabbily at a difficult, vulnerable time should certainly work in your favor as you pursue this. Prayers being said.

    Marie

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  4. Wow, so glad we live in Canada! Also glad your dad is able to help you deal with these people. Lots of prayers and love being sent your way.

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  5. You should definitely let the hospital know EVERY detail minute by minute!!!About a year ago, my hubby got a very bad, very nasty infection on his arm (he works in the oilfield industry and had to work on a really nasty boat that had come in from offshore...blech!)we have excellent insurance and decided that for a "simple" arm infection our local rural hospital would do.....to make a long story short, we waited for THREE HOURS in the waiting room, finally get to be seen by a Dr that looked so unkempt that I at first had mistaken her for someone that had wandered in off of the street! This Dr literally did NOT even get close enough to my hubby to see his arm much less examine it, said "he has an infection" (Me: really??? duh!), and WALKED OUT! She was in there for about 15 seconds, well, I recieved a bill for what the insurance didnt cover for $180.00!!!! I most certainly called the ADMINISTRATOR and told them our story! I let them know that I would pay for ONE glove as that is the only thing that was used!! Poor hubby didnt even get a band aid!! He had to make additional trips to his MD for mega antibotic shots!!Turned out that the hospital did listen, determined that the care given to my hubby was sub standard and wrote off the bill! So stand up to them girl!! The miscarriage you went through was horrific enough with out the hospital not even giving you the most basic care! They should be ashamed of themselves!! Take care and good luck!

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  6. i pray that this issue will be resolved soon!

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