A letter to billing

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing this today because I am very, very frustrated about the way your billing procedures have disrupted my life.

Three separate members of our family have needed your medical services at different times over the last three years, and we have had the VERY SAME BILLING PROBLEM, EVERY TIME! You see, we have been dilligent about paying our co pay, and we pay it every time we visit your facility. Our bank statements have been referred to and have proven that we have paid on every date of service at the time of our service. We then receive a check from your billing department, refunding that co pay. Long after we receive the check, WE GET A BILL, ASKING FOR PAYMENT OF THE CO PAY WE JUST GOT A CHECK FOR! So we have to pay our copay twice, and you have to send a check, and a bill. This seems like a HUGE waste of time, money and positive energy!!!

I took some of my valueable time and looked into this problem. I am shocked to discover that my account number CHANGES EVERY MONTH that I (or anyone else) am a patient here, and because that account number changes, my copay gets posted to last month's account, there is a surplus in that account and you send me a check, which leaves my new month's account with a deficit, WHICH WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR!! AGAIN!!

I was a patient of yours at the beginning of this year, and after the last two times we had this billing fiasco happen to us, I honestly did believe that it was just a fluke the last two times and that it surely, would not happen again. I made sure to pay my copay, every time I visited. But, there came that check again. This time I held the check. I was sure that your billing department would be asking for me to return it. I held the check for weeks, I am not sure how many weeks, but I was looking for a bill to follow shortly. When that bill did not come, and after weeks, I cashed that check.

Then, of course, the bill came.

I called the number on the bill and they told me what date the bill was for. The person on the phone told me to look at my bank statement and make sure I did pay on that date. So I did. I got my bank statement and it verified that I had paid my co pay on the very date of service.

Other bills followed and it was on my mind to call and figure out what was going on, but after seeing that my payment had been paid by my bank, I kind of just figured that the mistake would be found, and taken care of. I had forgotten about the check that had been sent to me.

One Saturday, I got a bill from your COLLECTIONS department. This bill had been sent to collections. On the following Monday, I called the regualr billing deparment to ask for my dates of service and to see if they could see if a payment was posted for those visits. The person on the phone told me all of my dates of service and that every one of them (including the one my bill was for) had a payment posted to them on the date of service. But, I still had this bill from collections in my hand, telling me that I owed for this particular date of service. I find it very interesting that your billing people can see that I paid every time, and that my bank statement records that I paid my copay every time, but I still get sent to collections because YOU SENT ME A CHECK!

I called the collections number. I spoke with Jason. I told him that I felt like it was unfair for me to be responsible twice for this co pay. I told him about the bank statements and everyting I have mentioned previously in this letter. He argued with me. He asked me if I received a check from you. I told him that I did remember receiving a check from you. He said: "By admitting that you received a check from us, you are admitting that you owe us this money." I told him that I didn't think that was just or fair. Jason replied with: "It is what it is." (Which is a statement he used MANY times during our conversation!) I spoke with him about all of the older people that I have seen at your facility that go there for treatment and that this must surely be happening to them too, and how very confused they must be. "It is what it is." Jason said.

Now I understand that this is not a monumental amount of money that is in question, here. But it is enough to make a difference in our family this week, or next week or the week after that. I certainly do not believe that the amount of money in question has been enough to pay for all the paperwork, postage and employee salary that you have had to pay to RE-collect this.

I must protest. I cannot believe that a company of your stature would waste valuable time and money on this kind of ridiculous billing procedure.

I would like to know who is in charge of this procedrue, and how I can contact them.

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Sincerely,

Me