DawgTalkers.net Forums Thread Like Summary - Doctors

I went in for surgery on Monday. I had the same surgery on my right hand 2 months or so ago. I paid my co-pays when I went to the doctor, and paid my surgery co-pay at the time of service.

Today I get a bill for $120 for 3 visits. There should have been no charge because I paid the one co-pay, and the other 2 visits were post-op.

Oh no ....... they charged me a "facility fee" for each visit. Why? Because they can. I like my surgeon, but I am letting him know that I wil never be back as long as he's part of that organization. I feel that kind of thing is no better than lying, and I don't like being lied to.

Then, I got a call from my dentist. They sent me a ridiculous bill for a crown, which should have been $400. I called, and my dentist told me that the insurance co. sent me a check, and that they had cancelled it, so don't try to cash it. OK. No problem.

So they send me a higher bill the other day. I was kinda ...irritated. I called the dentist, and he said something about the insurance company saying that I had cashed the check (A LIE) and that they had declined the bill. (also a lie) I called the insurance company and they told me that they had stopped payment on the check (as the doctor said the 1st time I spoke to him) and then we dug into the bill. No wonder it was so high ...... he put the wrong provider code on it, so it was billed as out of network.

I hate to think of my doctors as greedy, and their offices as incompetent, but I guess I have no choice. I have lost a ton of respect for 2 doctors I previously did respect.

Bleh. They shouldn't have dropped this on me 3 days after carpal tunnel surgery.

My favorite Dr visits are when they charge a flat fee upfront and dont get insurance involved. Like when I get scans. I had a routine heart scan. It was 90 bucks, including radiologist reading it.

Or if I go to Urgent Care instead of ER. Urgent Care is so inexpensive.

I also like ordering my own tests. Like from those "request a test" places. I have Crohns. I can keep an eye on my bloodwork without getting the Dr involved unless something is wrong.

No doubt. Back in the day, you go in for surgery and you get one bill from the hospital and insurance probably covered it. Now, everything is billed seperately.....surgeon, anesthesia, radiology, facility, etc. You have to watch for duplicates and really watch for what the hospital is charging and what insurance pays. Both the wife and I have had recent major surgeries. We received bills from her surgery before insurance paid. You have to wonder if they would have been refunded or not had we paid them right away and not kept an eye on them. I feel sorry for elderly or people that just don't have the knowledge to follow thru. It's almost a certainty that they're being taken advantage of.

Another area where people are getting the short end of the stick is with insurance denials and refusals. A lot of things that are denied can be appealed or pre-authorized to get covered. This has to be done by the physician's office, and sometimes they don't let you know that this is an option. It can include treatments, prodedures and medications....and can be as simple as changing a diagnosis, identifying other treatments that were ineffective or better documentation of the problem.

I know this will move this thread in a PP-direction...

but it really doesn't HAVE to be like this.