They Changed the Coding

After a three-week fight against the hospital and my insurance company, they finally agreed to change the code, which hopefully will reduce my $700 medical bill mentioned in older blogs. I think I gained some experiences on getting things done in the United States.

On receiving the bill, mad as I was, I remained polite and patient when explaining why I didn't agree with the bill to my insurance company. The lady seemed to understand and agree with what I said, and promised to review it. I waited for about two weeks but nothing happened - no call, no email, even no new notice. So I called back, and was told that they couldn't do anything about it unless I called the hospital and changed the coding. OK, then I called the hospital. The hospital has several offices - dispute office, billing office, coding office and the doctor's office, but it looks like none of them takes responsibilities of serving customers. What's worse, they don't talk to each other! Anyway, I called the billing office, and was transferred to another, and transferred back again, explaining my case to every office. Finally someone seemed to be able to talk to her colleagues and told me she would file a claim for re-coding.

Another week passed, and I received a phone call from the hospital, saying sorry we can't do anything about the coding. Then I asked her about the feedback from the billing office - why my claim was disproved? The young lady sounded very confused and asked me "what claim"? So again, I repeated everything. A few days later, she called me back, saying they couldn't change the coding; but again she couldn't explain why my claim was disproved. That was when I reached my limit. A month has passed, but these people were not even looking into the case! So I told her that the whole issue is a big disappointment, and I'd prefer to speak to her manager. I hang up the phone without saying goodbye. Today I heard from her again that they changed the coding and sent the new code to my insurance company.

I was taught to be nice as I grew up. Be friendly with other people and they will treat you in the same way. But it is not the case in this society. When I patiently explained to one after the other about my case for hours, no one took it seriously. The insurance company was not interested in reviewing the claim, and the coding office was reluctant to communicate with the doctor office to check the record, both of them simply told me "it's not working" without any explanation. But when I was rude, impolitely shouting at the poor operator, problems got solved very quickly. We shouldn't blame Wall Street for what they did to the country, as it looks like the society applauds bullies but can't stand good men.