Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 02:59:44 am

Login with username, password and session length


Members
  • Total Members: 37614
  • Latest: bondann
Stats
  • Total Posts: 772947
  • Total Topics: 66310
  • Online Today: 741
  • Online Ever: 5484
  • (June 18, 2021, 11:15:29 pm)
Users Online
Users: 1
Guests: 528
Total: 529

Welcome


Welcome to the POZ Community Forums, a round-the-clock discussion area for people with HIV/AIDS, their friends/family/caregivers, and others concerned about HIV/AIDS.  Click on the links below to browse our various forums; scroll down for a glance at the most recent posts; or join in the conversation yourself by registering on the left side of this page.

Privacy Warning:  Please realize that these forums are open to all, and are fully searchable via Google and other search engines. If you are HIV positive and disclose this in our forums, then it is almost the same thing as telling the whole world (or at least the World Wide Web). If this concerns you, then do not use a username or avatar that are self-identifying in any way. We do not allow the deletion of anything you post in these forums, so think before you post.

  • The information shared in these forums, by moderators and members, is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between an individual and his/her own physician.

  • All members of these forums are, by default, not considered to be licensed medical providers. If otherwise, users must clearly define themselves as such.

  • Forums members must behave at all times with respect and honesty. Posting guidelines, including time-out and banning policies, have been established by the moderators of these forums. Click here for “Do I Have HIV?” posting guidelines. Click here for posting guidelines pertaining to all other POZ community forums.

  • We ask all forums members to provide references for health/medical/scientific information they provide, when it is not a personal experience being discussed. Please provide hyperlinks with full URLs or full citations of published works not available via the Internet. Additionally, all forums members must post information which are true and correct to their knowledge.

  • Product advertisement—including links; banners; editorial content; and clinical trial, study or survey participation—is strictly prohibited by forums members unless permission has been secured from POZ.

To change forums navigation language settings, click here (members only), Register now

Para cambiar sus preferencias de los foros en español, haz clic aquí (sólo miembros), Regístrate ahora

Finished Reading This? You can collapse this or any other box on this page by clicking the symbol in each box.

Author Topic: Emergency Med Labs  (Read 4459 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Nasty Weather

  • Member
  • Posts: 15
Emergency Med Labs
« on: April 10, 2013, 06:28:52 pm »
For the last 3 years when I would go for more quarterly blood tests they always got billed as Emergency Med Labs and I did not have to pay, my last visit in Jan they billed as diagnostic labs and they now want $496 for a service that never cost me before, I have been arguing with the Hospital but not getting anywhere, has anybody else had this experience?

Offline liketheboat

  • Member
  • Posts: 44
Re: Emergency Med Labs
« Reply #1 on: April 18, 2013, 01:04:00 pm »
This does not make sense to me as quartley labs are neither "emergency" or "diagionstic" do you have the five digit procedure codes that they billed them with. Since they are labs they should start with an 8.
Aaron
Memorial Day 2010 Seroconverted
Labor Day 2010 tested positive
Oct 2010 cd4 359 vl 6,500
Dec 2010 cd4 vl 306
Jan 2011 started Atripla
Feb 2011 cd4 250 vl ud
April 2011 cd4 399 vl ud
June 2011 cd4 293 vl ud
October 2011 cd4 354 vl ud
March 2012 cd4 561 vl ud

Offline Nasty Weather

  • Member
  • Posts: 15
Re: Emergency Med Labs
« Reply #2 on: September 04, 2013, 06:21:53 pm »
That way they get covered 100% any other way you pay

Offline intaglio

  • Member
  • Posts: 245
  • Doesn't have to pay for vowels
Re: Emergency Med Labs
« Reply #3 on: September 04, 2013, 10:59:30 pm »
Review your previous statements for the diagnostic codes used to submit them to your insurance. Be ready to tell the billing office for the lab/hospital "this lab has been billed under XXXX code, now it's been submitted under YYYY code."

If you can't get cooperation over the phone, put in writing your disagreement. State specifically that these are the exact same tests that have been conducted, the dates of service (the days the labs were performed, and the doctor who requested them.

Then demand they correct their error. Send this statement by registered mail.

Contact your insurer. Tell them the lab/hospital/etc. is miscoding your labs and submitting them under incorrect codes. Tell them the labs are the same ones that have been done the last three years, etc.

Your insurer should tell the billing party you cannot be held financially responsible because of their billing error. Have your insurer send you written documentation that you are not responsible for payment in this case. This is usually all it takes for the billing party to resubmit the request for payment with the correct codes. (I've had to go this route with BC-BS over some hospital bills in the past.)

If neither of these work, contact the insurance oversight department of your state. Be ready to show you've exhausted all options and the lack of cooperation you've encountered. Usually getting your state's insurance commission involved is enough to get everyone's attention and get this resolved once and for all.
Reality is frequently inaccurate.

Offline bocker3

  • Member
  • Posts: 4,285
  • You gotta enjoy life......
Re: Emergency Med Labs
« Reply #4 on: September 05, 2013, 06:00:08 pm »
Personally, I'd be careful about calling out how they were coded as "Emergency" in the past, if they were not, in fact, Emergency labs.  You could be looking at an even bigger bill if the insurance company decides that the old ones were coded incorrectly, instead of this one.  I would start with the ordering doctor, before jumping to the insurance company.

If they are Emergency, fine, but I don't see how a quarterly draw would be an emergency.  They ARE diagnostic, in that they are giving insight into how your treatment is working or if you need to start treatment (whichever applies).  Coding something incorrectly in order to avoid a patient charge could constitute Insurance Fraud (by the clinician, of course, not the patient).

Just my 2 cents.

Mike

 


Terms of Membership for these forums
 

© 2024 Smart + Strong. All Rights Reserved.   terms of use and your privacy
Smart + Strong® is a registered trademark of CDM Publishing, LLC.