Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The Bill

One of the things I am learning over time is that when you get a bill that doesnt make sense, call the company and ask them why. Especially your insurance compnay. They make mistakes sometimes and they know that most people wont take the time to clarify, they would rather just pay it and be done.

For example, about a week ago I received a bill from the Lennox Hill ER. That is where we took M. for stitches when  he fell and cut himself at the playground one Shabbos afternoon. I had a minor heart attack when the bill said that the visit cost us $1700 dollars (side point- we were in the ER for an hour and a half, how could we rack up such a ridiculous bill!) and that we needed to pay for ALL of it because our insurance had denied the claim. After hyperventilating and telling my poor husband what crappy health insurance we have, I decided to read the fine print. It said that our insurance company won't cover the cost because our car insurance provider is responsible to pay for motor vehicle accidents.
Um, excuse me? This was not a car accident. We don't even own a car. M fell in the park and I had about twenty witnesses to prove it.

So I called the insurance company and explained to the nice man on the phone what had happened. He said it was a computer classification error and he could fix it right. He resubmitted the claim and said we would get an adjusted bill in the mail. That bill came today and we now owe the ER only $75 which is a much more palatable number. And all is well again in the world.

1 comment:

  1. glad it had a good ending... we had a similar situation recently when my 4 yr old cut open his chin at school and needed 40 stitches. we got a bill for over $9,000 (no it's not a typo...). this is what the plastic surgeon billed our insurance (keep in mind they charge per stitch...). his school's insurance is paying...

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