VALPO WOMAN WRONGLY BILLED

By Woodrow Wilcox

So, far this year, twice I have helped to fix a medical bill problem for a woman who is a client from Valparaiso, Indiana. Around here, many people refer to Valparaiso as “Valpo”.

In June, I wrote a letter to a hospital in Illinois that was billing her for a balance of $108.18 on charges from April 12, 2010. In that case, Medicare never sent the claim information to the client’s insurance company. My letter asked the hospital to send the claim information directly to the insurance company. That took care of that bill.

Now, in October, the hospital billed the client for $100 on charges from April 14, 2010. But, the insurance company informed me that Medicare ruled that neither the client nor the insurance company could be billed for this amount by the hospital.

On May 12, 2010, the insurance company wrote a letter to the hospital which explained that Medicare ruled that the hospital could not bill for the $100 charge on that date. But, the hospital ignored Medicare’s ruling and the insurance company’s letter and billed our client for the $100 anyway.

The $100 balance was not the total bill. Medicare and the insurance company already paid the rest of the bill. Medicare ruled that the charge for $100 should have been included in another amount and service on the original bill. Medicare ruled that this $100 was an overcharge that it would not allow. Medicare advised the hospital not to attempt to collect the $100. The hospital ignored that.

So, I wrote a letter to the hospital which recited the facts and warned hospital billing people to pay attention to the Medicare ruling or suffer the consequences.

The service that I gave to this client was given free of charge. Giving extra service to our senior citizen clients when a Medicare related medical bill problem happens is something that this insurance agency does to demonstrate to our clients that we care about them and that we want them to be treated fairly. Does your insurance agent or agency give this high level of extra service? If not, consider finding another insurance agent or agency.

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

www.WoodrowWilcox.com