topic Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance in Community Chat

Hospital Bills and Insurance

I am still oxox — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:20:53 GMT

Wish me patience, I was in the hospital for 8 days earlier this month, while I was there my insurance changed.

I have my husbands insurance as my primary and Medicare as my secondary, along with the change in insurance, none of the bills I have received are correct.

For each bill I need to make a call and give the same information, this is going to be a long and painful experience, but it is still better than paying $1000's in insurance co pays

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Still Raining — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:25:55 GMT

Oh you poor thing. I think if I had an IP stay that straddled two payers I would just give up and die. Would take a lifetime to get it right.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

CelticCrafter — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 21:48:55 GMT

When I was getting close to going from private pay to Medicare I told my husband to wait until after midnight of the last day of private pay before calling an ambulance!

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

DianeJ2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:11:19 GMT

Ugh 😩 I feel your pain. Yeah the co pay savings will be worth the aggravation, hang in there! Years ago, I had to call insurance daily for my dad's 3 month hospital stay. I had 5 bags of paperwork stored. He had Aetna, Medicare plus a supplemental. I went a bit nutty.

Hope you're feeling better these days @I am still oxox

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Jordan2 — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:25:14 GMT

@I am still oxox I feel bad for you. Good luck sorting it all out.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Spacrazy — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:35:37 GMT

Oh gosh, all I can say is “bless your heart”.

I sincerely wish you the very best for your good health and for patience as you tackle this adjustment.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

SunSprite — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:41:12 GMT

@I am still oxox I agree, it is a great big pain in the caboose.

Are you being billed with the inpatient hospital charges on the same bill as the physicians' charges? A single billing office statement or SBO? The reason I ask is if they are coming on one statement then you really only need ot make one phone call.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

I am still oxox — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:53:55 GMT

@SunSprite

No I am not so lucky, the doctors are billed different from the ER visit and other doctors that saw me when i was there.

I had an in house doc, an infectious disease doc and a pumonologist, both from the medical practice that I go to

@SunSprite wrote:
@I am still oxox I agree, it is a great big pain in the caboose.

Are you being billed with the inpatient hospital charges on the same bill as the physicians' charges? A single billing office statement or SBO? The reason I ask is if they are coming on one statement then you really only need ot make one phone call.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

SunSprite — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:57:42 GMT

Oh shoot, I'm sorry. I was hoping it might help you with an easier fix.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

50Mickey — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:43:55 GMT

Hang in there. Hopefully everything will work out. Don't stress.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

blackhole99 — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:46:00 GMT

Sounds like a real PIA, hope you love your insurance coverage.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Carmie — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 23:59:26 GMT

To the best of my knowledge, unless things have changed recently, you would continue to use the insurance that was active when you were first admitted....even if the original insurance has cancelled.

Once you are discharged, the new insurance would be used. This only applies to inpatient hospital stays.

The hospital will not split the bill and separate the charges because your insurance changed.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

september — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:06:59 GMT

@Carmie wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, unless things have changed recently, you would continue to use the insurance that was active when you were first admitted....even if the original insurance has cancelled.

Once you are discharged, the new insurance would be used. This only applies to inpatient hospital stays.

The hospital will not split the bill and separate the charges because your insurance changed.

This is how it has worked, in my experience.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Helen852 — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 00:40:11 GMT

My DH passed away in August of this year. He was in the hospital for 10 days. The bill from the hospital was what I call all inclusive. It had every doctor, every test, every technician on there. I went over the bill very carefully. The hospital bill was $194,000. My cost to the hospital was $614.00.

Last year between all his appointments, blood work and other procedures and testings we met our deductible and out of pocket. On the upside, some of that was able to be included on my taxes for 2019.

The year before we had 2 ambulance bills. One for when I had to call them and have him taken to the hospital, and the second when the hospital had him transported to the Trauma Center for emergency surgery. The second trip was covered, but not the first one. I did appeal to BCBS but they said because of the fact that we were not at our deductible for the year they would only cover 20% of the ride.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

I am still oxox — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:04:11 GMT

@Carmie

The bill submitted to my original insurance company after 1-5-20 were rejected, we are not praying premiums why should the cover us.

@Carmie wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, unless things have changed recently, you would continue to use the insurance that was active when you were first admitted....even if the original insurance has cancelled.

Once you are discharged, the new insurance would be used. This only applies to inpatient hospital stays.

The hospital will not split the bill and separate the charges because your insurance changed.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Katcat1 — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:10:10 GMT

@I am still oxox You should be grateful you have good insurance. I had many hospital bills and I would pay on them but that was not good enough and the bills were sent to a collection agency inturn that contacted the credit bureau lowering my credit rating. What a mess. I can only pay on the bills and that is the best I can do and I certainly am not losing sleep over it.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

I am still oxox — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:14:55 GMT

@Carmie

Also I had numerous doctors visiting every day, and those visits after 1-5 were submitted to my first insurance and had to be resubmitted to my new insurance

@Carmie wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, unless things have changed recently, you would continue to use the insurance that was active when you were first admitted....even if the original insurance has cancelled.

Once you are discharged, the new insurance would be used. This only applies to inpatient hospital stays.

The hospital will not split the bill and separate the charges because your insurance changed.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

I am still oxox — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:16:19 GMT

@Katcat1

We have good insurance that we pay a fortune for, we are lucky in that way

@Katcat1 wrote:
@I am still oxox You should be grateful you have good insurance. I had many hospital bills and I would pay on them but that was not good enough and the bills were sent to a collection agency inturn that contacted the credit bureau lowering my credit rating. What a mess. I can only pay on the bills and that is the best I can do and I certainly am not losing sleep over it.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

GNB1965 — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 01:38:11 GMT

Yikes! It's a shame that insurance has to be so complicated.

Re: Hospital Bills and Insurance

Carmie — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 02:24:30 GMT

@I am still oxox wrote:
@Carmie

The bill submitted to my original insurance company after 1-5-20 were rejected, we are not praying premiums why should the cover us.

@Carmie wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, unless things have changed recently, you would continue to use the insurance that was active when you were first admitted....even if the original insurance has cancelled.

Once you are discharged, the new insurance would be used. This only applies to inpatient hospital stays.

The hospital will not split the bill and separate the charges because your insurance changed.

As I mentioned, this applies ONLY to inpatient hospital bills....not bills from doctors. Doctors bill separately. All doctor bills should be submitted to the correct insurance company you had for each date you received services.

The hospital ( facility) bill is separate. They are required to submit the total bill to the insurance you had on day one of your admittance.

A little known fact is that insurance companies must cover inpatient facility bills if you had coverage on day one of your admittance until you are discharged....even if your insurance cancels while you are in there. Once you are discharged, they will not pay if you're re-admitted.

Anyway, this change in coverage should not cause you any problems. You just need to let the doctors know your new insurance info and they are required to submit the claims for you.