| NorthShore University Healthcare |
| NorthShore University Healthcare System There are plenty of good doctors out there so a particular one is not worth the hassle of dealing with his/he |
| 20th of Jun, 2011 by User165313 |
This is an incident with their Deerfield, IL office and its practice management. I am stuck with a $600 labwork bill just because nobody cares to provide the insurance with the right diagnostics code. Ive been played with or six weeks now in between the doctors office, lab and third party billing company. 1. When I first got the bill (May 13) I called my insurance company (BCBS PPO) immediately since I had never had to pay for this kind of services in 4 years with them. They say that this was a matter or billing correctly and they would pay the claim. I communicated this to the billing company who started the process of reviewing the claim with the doctors office. 2. During that process I received letters (before the bill was due) threatening with collection for allegedly me not paying the bill. I addressed this situation with the billing company and they stopped sending letters while the claim was under revision. 3. A week after, I followed up with the billing company who told me that at that point they were waiting for a response from the doctors office but they also advised this process would take 4-6 weeks. That seemed odd to me but they are the ones who determine whether this is acceptable practice or not. 4. Being proactive, I called the practice manager to find out whats been worked on so far and see if this was truly a 4-6 weeks process. Now this is the part when all this started to get irritating and when I get the answer questions that belonged to somebody else:
Why the doctor ordered the test? (Isnt this supposed to be their business? Isnt the doctor this persons boss?)
What would be the correct billing codes (I answered that I dont work in their billing department and I am not a doctor). 5. This practice manager said they cannot revise billing codes just because and place the blame on the insurance and billing companies. I was very clear to communicate that no matter how good a doctor is, he/she is not worth hassle. She asked me for patience and to give them an opportunity to work on this. A few weeks later (June 21):
1. Received a bill with the same charges
2. The claim was not resubmitted
3. Called the billing company only to find out they didnt receive any communication from the doctors office in the time I was supposed to have some patience. They asked me to ask the doctors office to send the records and diagnostic (isnt this supposed to be worked out in between these two parties?)
4. Called the doctors office. The practice manager brought up another party to this: the lab but nothing about actually talking to the doctor (I thought, another party to blame). She kept insisting that is my fault and my insurances that I have to pay for this. She even asked me what the codes must be! Isnt this their job? I reminded her that she was the one asking me for patience and that no doctor regardless her/his talent is worth this interaction. I communicated my intention of posting this complaint, flag this organization with insurance providers, coworkers and neighbors, and she is fine with it. Shame on both her and the doctors owning this practice!
5. I called my insurance company (again, no problem in 4 years), and they told me I am covered for diagnostics lab, and repeated (and this was another person) that all the doctor needs to do is to specify the diagnostic.
6. I called the billing company again and so far, this person has been the only people apologizing for this hassle. They offered a 35% discount of the bill which I appreciate but what matters here is the principle and this lousy Northshore Healthcare System practice needs to do their work. What we agreed to was to engage the billing supervisor so I still have pending phone calls and conversations. Here are the issues with Northshore Healthcare System:
1. The staff needs to work on customer management skills
2. The patient is to blame for the doctors diagnosis and his/her office management practices
3. The lack of internal communication is the patients fault since this is only driven when the patient has issues
4. Expect to work for them, not them for you and be prepared to spend time on the phone back and forth, write e-mails and send faxes. Drive the communication all the way to resolution (or lack of thereof)
5. Make promises just to get you off their back and see if the issue goes away
6. Evidently, the only part they care about is the financials but they are completely unaware that for this repeated business and reputation is the key
7. Ultimately, is somebody elses fault and there is no ownership of patients issues |
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