Medical bill question

[anime-chicka]

I'm back with another question.

I had a sleep clinic study done towards the end of March, about 3 weeks after my discharge. I know that my medical insurance was billed and they paid their share, leaving me with a bill of about $750. I intend to pay it, but to date, and it's going on a month now since the insurance paid their share and I have not received the bill from the hospital.

I also know the insurance has been charged for the follow up visit a week after, but again, still no bill.

I'm wondering if I should call to see when they're going to bill me, as the hospital is usually pretty prompt demanding payment, or if I should not disturb the beast at this moment? I do want to make good on this as I love my doctor and I don't want to have to find another one.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I'm sort of awake and I haven't had my coffee yet.

[aces67]

I used to work in medical billing. Typically the hospital does not bill until AFTER they recieve and POST your insurance payment. That can take 3-4 additional weeks AFTER you recieve your EOB from your insurance company.

I haven't had my coffee yet either so what I'm trying to say is if you got notice from your insurance that they paid wait about 3-4 more weeks and then you should recieve a bill.

If it's been that long already then yes you need to call them.

[anime-chicka]

See, that's what's odd. Usually the send me a confirmation of my insurance before they even bill and I never got that either. What's even stranger is that they kept sending me a bill for an amount that I had included in my bankruptcy and I paid it because they were threatening to send it collections. I know I could have simply forwarded it onto my lawyer to have him take care if it, but because it was such a small amount (less than 10 dollars) I just took care of it myself.

Come to think of it, it seems like there were a few medical bills that were supposed to be included that I kept getting bills or threats of the bills being sent to collections that I probably shouldn't have gotten. All of them for small amounts (either 10 or 20 dollars).

I'll give it a few more weeks and wait to see what they say. They're supposed to hit up my insurance for a second sleep study in the next week or so. My insurance is pretty fast about making payments.

[jojo]

I say call. Usually when you file, the facility will put your account into an internal bad debt which prevents statements from going out to the patient.

[anime-chicka]

The bill came last night, and I called today to try and make payment arrangements. While the hospital itself is nice, I don't think they've gotten the concept that people do not have a lot of money lying around. I know I don't.

I could apply for financial aid through them, but I know I wouldn't qualify as it's based on the Federal Poverty Guidelines. We're way above that, despite the fact that I can show that nearly all our income goes to bills. We're just not poor enough.

[jojo]

I work for a hospital and the problem is right now hospitals are hurting for money just as everybody else is. They are struggling to keep their doors open.