General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I Went To The Accts Payable Dept Of The Hospital Yesterday To Pay My Mom's Bill's And Found This.... [View all]SouthernLiberal
(407 posts)My husband died over 12 years ago. He was covered under my insurance, so I had to sign everything as the responsible person. He was in the hospital for less than 12 hours. I kept getting new bills for months. And from people I never heard of. The kicker though, was a bill that was sent out for the first time about four months after he passed, and marked as overdue and about to be turned over to collections. I was livid, and I called on that one. They tried to tell me that because the payment had not been received, they were justified in threatening me with collections., even though they had to admit that they had never sent a single previous bill to me or to the insurance company!
I threatened them right back, since they were preparing to take action that would damage my credit rating even though the delay was totally their fault.
When everything went through the insurance, I began to feel that I understood the reason for this tactic. The bill they sent be was for well over a thousand dollars. When the explanation of benefits came in, the 'agreed amount' for the service was $25. Blue Cross paid the whole $25, and I owed nothing. So this was clearly an attempt to trick me into paying a lot more than was actually owed to them.
The last bill didn't actually arrive for almost a year. That was the ambulance.
Hang in there, though. This too shall pass.