| I had two insurance companies when our first kid was born, and the hospital completely botched the filing leading to both companies denying the claims because of late filing and so on (we gave them additional the info they needed a few days after the initial claim was denied — they didn’t refile until nearly a year later). They tried to come after us for 10s of thousands of dollars in bills. After much back and forth with insurance companies and the hospital most of it was either discharged or paid for by insurance, they eventually sent us to collections for $1000. Unfortunately for them, I had been taking detailed notes of conversations, including people I talked to and dates and times, and had gone through itemized bills, noting things like duplicate charges, and multiple times I had been lied to on the phone by the billing department about what paperwork they had filed with the insurance companies and when along with documentary evidence by the insurance companies. By my reckoning they actually owed me an $800 refund from a check I had sent them earlier to cover a charge that an insurance company later paid. I said if there isn’t a check in the mail today for $800 and the collections notice retracted, I’m taking all this information and filing in small claims court. It was taken care of that day. My kid was already walking by the time the billing was handled for his birth. It’s so depressing because as a hospital, we have absolutely no complaints about the care. It’s hard to believe that they can be so competent at delivering care and so completely incompetent at billing for it. |