This Just Keeps Getting Better and Better

* Stringham high: Springtime
* Stringham low: Cold, cold rain and collections agencies
* Stringham super-high: Thoughts of warm, sandy beaches and saltwater spray

I got another letter today from the same collection agency as last week—-this time for the Beltway Surgery Center bill—the surgery for my eyes. This collections agent was a little nicer, listening and taking more information from me, and gave me the name of the representative at the collection agency who would be handling this "account," so that was helpful. The agent told me that the hospital obviously thinks Medicaid isn’t going to pay, if they’ve turned the bill over to collections. And she asked if I knew why Medicaid had denied paying the bill. (Yeah, right, because they tell me.) But I explained all about how IIH is covered by pregnancy Medicaid and that the vision problems necessitating the surgery on my eyes were caused by the IIH. (I have explained this to I don't know how many people, but it never seems to matter. Maybe someday it will sink in somewhere and make a difference.) The agent said she’d pass that information on to the representative and said it might have just been a billing code issue that needed to be worked out by the hospital and Medicaid. She still tried to tell me that if Medicaid doesn’t cover the bill, I will be responsible for paying it.

Hmm, hospitals and collections agencies tell me I’m responsible for paying, but Medicaid representatives tell me I’m not. Who to believe?

Also had a very enlightening conversation today with someone at my chiropractor's office who keeps getting bills from the first doctor who sent my account to collections. This person keeps getting bills for tests that are done for their child (who has a chronic condition and requires constant testing and follow-up) and that this doctor then reads--apparently, that's all this doc does, that's all he did for me, read an X-ray and a CT scan. Yup, this person keeps getting bills from the doc that say they are required to pay the balance because their insurance company didn't cover, yadda, yadda, yadda. We wonder if this doctor is trying to double bill people. Wouldn’t be very nice of him. Or, come to think of it, maybe it's just ineptitude--maybe his office just doesn't know how to bill properly and he keeps going after the poor schmucks who had no say in who was to read their scans. Either way, it's not very nice or responsible.