IU West Double Billing

[Doug]

IU West is billing us for services for which Medicare already paid. We sent letters and called and were told the problem was resolved.
Today we received another bill for the same service.
Does anyone know a competent person in billing for IU West that we could call?

 

[tim87tr]

There's no one competent. Absolutely none. It's bad. Got turned into collections over $200 when they'd received a half million insurance and I had a $1500 deductible. It's kids reading a transcript and they're morons. Funny thing is I got a check for $600, cashed it, called them back and had them over a barrel. Just don't pay it. They're idiots. See this...

IU Billing

Had a PSA blood test done on 11/17/2023 at IU in Muncie Ind. Got a bill in the mail today for 107.00. Looked on my Medicare account and it never was filed. Called IU and got this foreigner guy. This guy didn't know what Medicare is? I had to give him my Medicare account, their phone number...

www.indianagunowners.com

 

[kawtech87]

My wife is a labor and delivery nurse at IU West. Our insurance is through IU. They still manage to screw things up even when it's all in house.

 

[KLB]

You could try the Patient Advocacy group there.

 

[phylodog]

IU West is billing us for services for which Medicare already paid. We sent letters and called and were told the problem was resolved.
Today we received another bill for the same service.
Does anyone know a competent person in billing for IU West that we could call?

Why waste your time? Seriously. If the most overinflated ripoff of an industry can't figure out how to properly ask for money why should you spend your time trying to figure it out? What are they going to do, come repo your car if they say you owe them money?

My lowest credit score from the big three is sitting at 819. I've never paid a legitimate bill late in my life. I will not waste 30 seconds of my time attempting to straighten out the problems of billion dollar medical industry corporations. If they want to start paying me for my time I might consider it but otherwise they can **** off.

Dealing with the medical profession is the only portion of my life where I no longer hold myself to any standards whatsoever. I can walk into their building and they will **** away five year's worth of my expendable income within minutes and send me away with absolutely zero useful information or remedy. I'll get a bill for thousands of dollars I'm supposed to fret about and feel responsible for when they'll do the exact same for someone they know good and well can't and won't pay a dime and will suffer zero consequences.

Of course, I'm also done participating in the medical industry unless forced into it through emergency so my advice may not be for everyone.

 

[firecadet613]

IU West is billing us for services for which Medicare already paid. We sent letters and called and were told the problem was resolved.
Today we received another bill for the same service.
Does anyone know a competent person in billing for IU West that we could call?

Don't waste your time. You have proof it was paid, let them send it to collections.

See the thread @tim87tr referenced.

We had a legitimate bill, which they kept failing to bill our insurance. On the third call my wife made to them about it (in as many months), they told her they wrote it off and we have a zero balance.

 

[Nazgul]

I take a very expensive med for arthritis, $1400/week. The manufacturer has a copay assistance process using a debit card so I paid $0 for it along with my insurance. Insurance wanted me to change to another pharmacy .

The refill process was you call for a refill, they verify all the info, use the debit card and send the med. The new pharmacy would do all that but not bill the card until after the non returnable med was shipped.

All of a sudden I get a bill for the copay 3 months of the meds, around $5000. So I called and they said the debit card from the manufacturer was not valid. I asked why they shipped it 3 times without the copay? They had a bunch of answers but in the end insisted I pay the bill. I asked repeatedly why I would ok a shipment for that amount of money which would really strain the monthly budget.

I called the manufacturer who was very easy to deal with and helpful. She explained because of a change to medicare I wasn't eligible for the debit copay anymore. She was astonished that the pharmacy would do this. She had a conference call with them while I was on the phone and they said it was their policy to ship before they verified the card.

In the end I kept detailed records of every contact with them and asked to see some verification that I agreed to the cost. They said it was all recorded so I asked for a copy of the recording. Did not hear from them for 60 days then got another bill. Called them again, repeated the same conversation , wrote my notes and they promised to get back to me. No response and 60 days later another bill. Wash and repeat 2 more times.


Finally they admitted they had no records of me agreeing to the cost, sent one more bill which I ignored and they never contacted me again.

The manufacturer had a program where you got the med free if you qualified. Sent me the forms, I was qualified in a week and for 2 years received it free. I figured we made too much money even in retirement to qualify but the threshold was pretty high.

Don

 

[natdscott]

Just, uh...

1) Continue to communicate.

2) Be careful with your credit score.

3) Don't hesitate to pay a little for some words on attorney letterhead. Those words communicate differently than your words.

I know, attorneys suck, but at least you know WHOSE BMW you helped buy. Or kid's soccer cleats. Or music lessons.



ETA: And no, I am not an attorney, a non-attorney spokesman, or any other such thing.

 

[phylodog]

We had a legitimate bill, which they kept failing to bill our insurance. On the third call my wife made to them about it (in as many months), they told her they wrote it off and we have a zero balance.

Funny, eh? I can't imagine trying to earn a legitimate living doing something where I could afford to just not collect money owed for my services. Something like that might almost get someone thinking about the legitimacy of their operation. Just bill whatever the hell they feel like to whomever is dumb enough to pay for it and see where the chips fall. That seems to have been m experience with the medical industry for the past three decades.