I got a COVID test late last year on the day that my new health insurance year started. I did not yet have a new ID card, but had the same provider and plan, so I gave the testing center my previous insurance info. Months later, I got a bill for the self pay rate of $175 and thought maybe it was because they tried to bill the old insurance and nobody was able to verify it. I called up the testing facility (part of a network of urgent cares) and gave them the new insurance info. They cancelled the old bill and submitted to my current year insurance instead. FWIW, my insurance company is listed as one of the insurance providers they accept on their website.
Well, they billed my insurance $320 and my insurance covered nothing. I’d looked at my policy before going to get this test, but obviously with COVID there wasn’t anything applicable in my plan benefits agreement from December 2019 to look at. The website was also not helpful — I recall that it had optimistic language about how most people’s tests would be covered, but not nearly enough data to understand whose wouldn’t be. (I don’t see any mention about testing coverage on their site now.)
What are the odds I can just call the testing facility billing dept and reverse this nonsense? I will pay them the $175 straight away, but it’s pretty messed up to have to pay MORE to my insurance company just because they charge insurers more for the same service.
This is why people are afraid to go to the doctor in America during a pandemic.
submitted by /u/april1713
[link] [comments]
I got a COVID test late last year on the day that my new health insurance year started. I did not yet have a new ID card, but had the same provider and plan, so I gave the testing center my previous insurance info. Months later, I got a bill for the self pay rate of $175 and thought maybe it was because they tried to bill the old insurance and nobody was able to verify it. I called up the testing facility (part of a network of urgent cares) and gave them the new insurance info. They cancelled the old bill and submitted to my current year insurance instead. FWIW, my insurance company is listed as one of the insurance providers they accept on their website. Well, they billed my insurance $320 and my insurance covered nothing. I’d looked at my policy before going to get this test, but obviously with COVID there wasn’t anything applicable in my plan benefits agreement from December 2019 to look at. The website was also not helpful — I recall that it had optimistic language about how most people’s tests would be covered, but not nearly enough data to understand whose wouldn’t be. (I don’t see any mention about testing coverage on their site now.) What are the odds I can just call the testing facility billing dept and reverse this nonsense? I will pay them the $175 straight away, but it’s pretty messed up to have to pay MORE to my insurance company just because they charge insurers more for the same service. This is why people are afraid to go to the doctor in America during a pandemic.
submitted by /u/april1713 [link] [comments]Read Morer/HealthInsurance