First Medical Bill

Well, the first medical bill came in the mail this week.  On Tuesday, I believe, though I did not get the mail every day this week.  With the wrong address on it, I might add, so I suppose it is a good thing it made it to my mailbox at all.  It was from Radiology for my pre-op chest x-rays that I had done way back on 5/8/15.

The amount looked awfully familiar.  So I logged into out HRA account, and sure enough it had already been paid by the HRA earlier this month.  I though nothing of it really, things cross in the mail all the time.  Just to be sure, I thought I would call the Radiology Billing Dept to make sure things had been taken care of.

I got a very unpleasant person named Tiffany on the phone.  I explained to her unfriendly self what was going on and I was just calling to make sure they had been paid.  She proceeded to get even nastier with telling me that they had not been paid yet and would need me to make a payment or provide detailed documentation regarding the payment sent including proof they had deposited the money so they could look for the missing money.

At this point, my Dad knocked on the door.  So I told her I would call back and hung up on her.

I have never had such a bad experience when calling to make sure someone had gotten their money.  You'd think I was calling to tell her I had no intention of making good on my account.

After talking with my dad for a bit, I called the company responsible for managing our HRA.  Our HRA is a little funky.  It works differently than any other I've had experience with, and I used to work in medical billing.  After our insurance pays a claim, if we owe, the claim is sent directly from the insurance to the HRA company.  The HRA then makes payment automatically as long as there are funds in the account.  We never get a bill (until funds run out) and we don't use a payment card to make payments on our own.  All the bills have to be paid this way.  We have the option of making our own healthcare purchases using our own bank/credit cards and getting reimbursed if there are funds available.  It is weird, and every time I try to explain it to someone trying to collect money upfront they just don't get it.  In fact, when the Psychologist tried to collect their testing fee upfront (over $250.00) I tried to explain the HRA and told them I was willing to pay upfront, as long as when they received the HRA payment they would send me a refund.  They said no, no refunds.  So I said no, no prepayment.  Luckily for me, they still let me see the doctor.  I did later get a bill for my copay, but it was a lot less than what they wanted me to pay.

Back to my story though... So I called the HRA company.  I told the rep what was going on, and that I wanted to see if they had verification that the check had been deposited.  The rep looked into it and told me payment had been sent, but had not been deposited.  So I asked her to cancel the check and refund that amount back to the HRA, that I would just pay this bill myself.  She helpfully told me to be sure to save my receipt so I could file the claim to the HRA myself.

Then I called the Radiology Billing Dept back.  I was going to tell them what I did and give them my correct address.  I was on hold for a while when I noticed on the bill that I could pay online.  So I hung up and went online and paid.  They can figure it out for themselves when they try to deposit a cancelled check.  Hopefully, they will have no need of my correct address in the future.