I have to say.
I'm glad I don't have to deal with billing in my job.
Like the closest I could get is if a grooming customer doesn't pay for their groom. But we just call them and are like "Hey you didn't pay." and if they still don't pay then we put a block on them to prevent them from grooming with us again and call it a day.
But today I decided to drop by the doctor's where I had gotten my CT and MRI scan done when I finally decided to go to the doctor about my migraines a few months ago and they recommended doing a CT and MRI to make sure there wasn't anything going.
There wasn't.
Which is annoying to get tests that show that there's nothing wrong with you that you then have to pay for.
Said tests were done in May.
And after like a .... couple of weeksish? I got billed for what I would need to pay for the CT scan that insurance wouldn't cover.
Easy peasy. Paid it right away. Didn't like paying it. But paid it right away.
And I expected the MRI bill to come pretty quickly after that.
But....it's been radio silence.
So it's just been hanging over my head.
And I was like....Okay.... maybe the MRI just takes longer to go through insurance?
I mean I've had an MRI done before where they didn't find anything. But that was done way back when I was in college and I was still on my parent's insurance. So like...no idea how long it took the bill to come through.
I'd kinda put it on the back back back back burner.
Until I'd recently got notified about my dental related claims.
So I went into my insurance website to check that out. Since I have dental and medical under the same insurer....I was like "Well let me look at the medical stuff too."
and Medical.....medical showed that the insurance had processed my claim for the MRI....way back at literally the same time the CT scan was processed.
But I hadn't received the bill.
Tried going into the patient portal for my doctors to make sure I hadn't missed an email there....
And nothing. It didn't show I owed anything.
So like.... confusion much?
Like the insurance site gave me the option to pay what it claimed I owed the doctors.....but the doctors had never billed me....and like I didn't want to pay something I didn't owe.
So I decided to continue waiting....
Until today.
Because I got another notification about when I went to the dentist for my cavities last week....
And still no notification about the MRI.
So I was like. Well I have the time today and the energy today. So I went by the facility to talk to the billing department just to see what was going on.
Because I had no idea how much I would owe for sure.
And I didn't want to have the bill suddenly sprung on me if I could help it.
I also didn't want to have my bill sent to collectors and get hounded for that. Especially if I'd never been notified.
I don't even know how long they wait before they start hounding you for bills.....
In any case.
When I got to the office both receptionists were on the phone with customers who were also trying to figure out their bills....
But from what I overheard both receptionists were dealing with customers who had bills that had actually gone to collectors.
Which. Oof.
That sounds like a nightmare. Like apparently the collectors charge interest on the bills.....which is just cruel in my opinion. Like there's a reason why the bills were probably not paid yet. But like one receptionist was saying one customer owed money to them from like 4 years ago.
But it sounded like the one receptionist was having a better time with the one customer compared to the second receptionist.
They kinda looked and sounded like they were two seconds away from throwing the computer. They were on the phone with the same customer the entire time I was there. And it kinda sounded like they probably had had to explain the same thing multiple times to the customer.
Which basically boiled down to "We don't have contact with the collectors. We can't access their information. They can access certain things but don't have power over other things. No you only owe us this amount of money. The interest is owed to the collectors. We don't get the interest money. The collectors do. If we got the interest money WE would be the ones charging you interest and WE would be the ones hounding you for the money the Collectors wouldn't be involved at all."
So yah. I did not envy them that phone call because it just sounds frustrating. On both sides. Because I get not wanting to have to pay more money than you have to....but seriously if the bill has been unpaid long enough to get the collectors on your back.....that's...not great either.
In any case.
It does make me wonder how long they wait for a bill to remain unpaid before sending it to collectors. I'm guessing it probably depends on the facility. But who knows.
Needless to say I was a bit nervous.
Like I'm pretty sure not paying any bills for like 3 months isn't long enough.
But it made me all the more eager to make sure that I got my own payments squared away so I would no longer have to worry about potentially owing money for the MRI.
So when the first receptionist finally got off the phone. I explained my situation. That I hadn't received an MRI bill yet and just wanted to check in and see if I actually owed anything yet or not.
Turns out.
I didn't.
O.o
Why?
Well.
After insurance I owed a certain amount of money.
Which surprisingly was only like $80.
Considering the CT scan I ended up having to pay like nearly $300.....
It's kinda crazy the difference in how much you owe depending on the procedure with insurance.
In any case.
I technically owed $80.
But before the procedure they had had me pay like a $50 fee.
Which went towards the $80.
Bringing me down to $30 owed.
BUT.
I had also paid like a $30 fee for the CT scan?
(I remember paying a copay before the procedures but don't remember the cost for it. Just was like "Okay makes sense I need to do a copay)
But then I also paid for what I owed for the CT scan after insurance....without taking into account the $30 I'd paid beforehand.
Which left me with an extra $30 credit....
Which they had already kinda in their computer system used to cover the rest of what I owed for the MRI scan.
So the receptionist was like "They kinda already just assumed that $30 was going to the MRI which is why you never received a bill because they already considered you squared away, but here let me make it all official and move that officially over."
And walla!
So turns out. I didn't owe any money for the MRI.
YAY.
Like annoying that I had like 3 months of back burner stress that didn't need to be stress.
But yay that I didn't have to spend MORE money at the moment.
Even though $80 is a lot better than like another $200-$300 that I had been expecting.
Though it does make me wonder like....if I never went back to that doctors place again and I still had that $30 credit....what would have ended up with that $30 credit?
Would they have just ended up keeping my money? Or would they have eventually sent it back to me with a "oh hey we charged you too much. Oops?"
Somehow I think it's more the former rather than the latter. *exhales*
In any case.
I'm just grateful that I didn't owe any money. So yay!
Until you next find these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!
-Sarnic Dirchi
No comments:
Post a Comment