By Woodrow Wilcox
I received a wonderful letter from a client on Monday, June 21, 2010. I would like to show the letter to the world, but that would be both illegal and inappropriate. So, I will eliminate the identifying information from the letter and let you know what the client wrote. I have changed the name of the hospital to just “hospital” and edited some other identifiers from the letter to protect the privacy of the client and follow the law. With that editing acknowledged, here is the letter that I received from a senior citizen gentleman in Lowell, Indiana.
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Dear Mr. Wilcox,
I had surgery for (a condition) at (a hospital in northwest Indiana) in April.
This month, I received a bill from (the hospital) for $287.65. The bill appears to acknowledge payments from Medicare and (my insurance company). A copy of the bill is submitted for your review.
As of this writing (June 18), I have received no payment information regarding this surgery from either (Medicare) or (my insurance company).
Because of this, I don’t know if this bill for $287.65 is my responsibility or if there was an error in billing.
You’ve been a wonderful help to me in prior run-ins with (the hospital). May I ask your help again? I’m sorry to be troubling you.
Thank you for your past and current help for seniors. You’ve definitely made a difference in standing up for me and others in my age group.
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That is all that I can share from the client’s letter. Let me answer that a client’s request for help is not “troubling” me. It is one of my responsibilities at this insurance agency. Normally, I’m a rather mellow guy. But, dealing with collection departments, collection agencies, and collection attorneys to protect our clients’ interests when a Medicare related bill is messed up can cause some stress. The last time I figured it, I had saved senior citizen clients of this insurance agency over $750,000 in wrongful claims that they would have paid if I had not helped them.
There is so much to do, too. I have encouraged other people to help senior citizens to correct Medicare caused medical bill errors. The best candidates to give this help are insurance agents who serve senior citizens. In past articles, I have given my calculations for my belief that errors and mistakes by federal government Medicare personnel and systems are costing America’s senior citizens OVER ONE BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR in wrongful demands for money from senior citizens for just Medicare parts A and B alone. Even more problems have been caused by Medicare parts C and D.
So, if you meet me and I’m a bit stressed or overworked, please, understand why.
Note: Woodrow Wilcox is the senior medical bill problem solver at Senior Care Insurance Services in Merrillville, Indiana. That is one of the largest senior citizen oriented insurance agencies in the Midwest.
© 2010 Woodrow Wilcox