Health Insurance

Generally speaking, I like my health insurance, but I do have had a couple of interesting scenarios come up.

1. I received a bill charging me a co-pay for vaginal birth on February 18, February 19 and February 20, 2005. Since I came home from the hospital with only one child, I thought that was a bit much. Situation was resolved with some laughter from the customer service rep who took my call with minimal fuss. Two weeks later, I received a refund check (I had lost track of my payments and had actually gone over by $60).

2. I just received my third bill for L.'s allergist appointment. The first bill, I thought was a mistake (sometimes things get a little behind on their payment schedule) since it showed I owed $191 for her appointment. I paid my co-pay at the time of her appointment, so the amount due should have been $0. The second bill came with the same amount due and a short nasty-gram reminding me to pay or else. I gave the health plan a call, and the customer service rep assured me she would get it fixed. Yesterday, I received bill number three. This time, it says I owe $211. This is not the direction I expected the amount due to go. I gave the health plan another call, and the customer service rep assures me that I don't owe anything. There is an amount pending with the insurance company. Once that has been accepted, they will re-apply my $20 co-pay. Sounds fishy to me, but I will wait another month for another bill.

Don't you just love calling a company that sent you a bill only to be told you don't actually owe anything? Why can't the bill state that $191 is pending with the insurer?

No room in the land of health insurance for logic.

M.W.