very simple

[update] after I posted the lengthy rant below, the billing department resolved the problem to my satisfaction. They still haven’t been able to locate the payment, but the quality control supervisor got involved after the last go-round of errors and agreed that the missing money should no longer be my problem to deal with, so my account has been cleared up. I do actually hope they find the payment, but now it’s entirely on their end, and their problem, to resolve.

It’s been some time since I posted a real blog post, and even longer since I posted something that wasn’t purely photographs, but I have a rant that I need to get out, and its really too long for twitter. For the last year and a half, I’ve been seeing a doctor affiliated with Weill Cornell. She’s great. that’s not the issue. The particular reason I’m seeing her is not the issue (and it’s not a serious health issue, but I see her every 2-3 months, which is important to note). The issue is the Weill Cornell billing department, which I think is now just trolling me.

Short note – last year my office switched to a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account. It’s kind of annoying, but we’ve all gotten used to it at this point. One of the “features” is that, instead of paying a co-pay during your visit, you owe the entire balance of your bill until you hit your deductible, but only the “insurance company negotiated rate”. Once you’re bill has been submitted to the insurance company and the insurance company discount has been lopped off, you can (in theory) go to the insurance company website and pay the balance you owe your doctor from your HSA directly from the insurance company website (You can also use a debit card to pay for things, which in hindsight is clearly the better option).

I did this with ZERO problems when I paid my bill in August for my June visit.

Then I had an appointment in August, and paid my bill the exact same way in September.

Then in October, I got a nasty letter saying I hadn’t paid my bill and that I was in danger of being sent to collections. Thus begins the saga. I go to the HSA website and get all the payment documentation, and fax it in to the number on the bill (because, of course, there’s no email).

I then follow up with a call on Monday. Of course they didn’t receive my fax. They give me an email address, which begins the email saga. I email the documents. There’s no evidence they received the payment. They claim the account number on the payment info is wrong. Doesn’t matter that its the exact same info as the August payment that they received. Doesn’t matter that it’s the exact same payment record info that was used to apply the insurance company discount. Doesn’t matter that the info has detailed information that includes: My name, my doctor’s name, the date and time of my appointment, my insurance info, the exact dollar amount being paid. It’s lost in the system.

This goes on for about a month, and on the Friday after Thanksgiving, I get a call from a supervisor, basically demanding more documentation. My HSA folks are actually really good and send even more documentation, including a trace they ran on the payment, that shows exactly when Weill Cornell accepted and deposited the money into their accounts. Still no joy. But at this point, WC has decided to put a freeze on this particular bill because clearly I’m not a deadbeat. Clearly they recognize I’ve made some sort of payment and they need to track it down. Part of the issue also is that there’s only so much money in my HSA, so it’s not like I can just pay the bill again. Nor should I have to, because, you know, I’ve already paid it!

So far so good, right? Not so fast.

In the meantime, I went to see the doctor again at the end of October. So I ask the billing office during one of our interminable calls trying to sort out the issue, not wanting to be a deadbeat, how do I make sure that I can pay the bill for my October appointment when it arrives and not have the payment misapplied to the frozen August visit? I’m told very specifically that the best way to handle this is to call the office and pay by phone, so that I can explain the situation.

Done – I do this on December 22nd (the day before my December appointment), specifically directing them to apply the payment to my OCTOBER visit. The only reason I waited so long was that I was hoping that they would have sorted everything out by then, but they didn’t.

Today I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any update on the August mishegoss, so I send an email requesting a follow up on what’s been done over the past month to track down that missing payment, and this is the response I get (some items redacted):

Good Afternoon Ms/Mrs. Dow,

I apologize for the delay in getting a resolution for you. We have confirmed with [HSA] there has been only one payment of $XXXX issued to Weill Cornell Medical college from your account. The payment of $XXXX was received and applied to your account. However, was applied to date of service 10/20/14 in error. We have correctly applied the payment to date of service 8/19/14.

The total amount due on the account is still 2x[$XXXX] for dates of service 10/20/14 and 12/23/14. The next invoice will be run this month and will reflect the current charges.

Once again I apologize for the delay and the misunderstanding, If you have any further questions please feel free to call me at [redacted]

You see what they did? They took my correctly applied payment for my October visit, wiped out the record of my payment for that visit, and applied it to the supposedly “frozen” August visit, assuming that was the missing payment. Nevermind that it was an entirely new payment made months after the original payment for which they have about 18 different forms of documentation, made following THEIR instructions so that it specifically wouldn’t be misapplied. I was speechless. So now, the fact that the August bill was frozen/disputed has been wiped from the system, and they’re charging me a second time for October.

I was about two seconds away from sending a response that was nothing but a series of “WTF”s. My actual response was not much better, although it did use words, none of them qualifying as vulgar. The CAPS LOCK key was not so fortunate.

Tags: bitching