If you have been keeping up with my ongoing story of one uninsured person's struggle with our health care system. The last remaining issue involved the ER physician's bill. The Emergency Room had billed me for a "surgical procedure" that never occurred. Normally the ER doc bills for the same things that the ER room bills. So my ER doc 's bill included the same phantom "surgical procedure."
You might think it puzzling, since it stands to reason that the ER doc knows if he performed a surgical procedure or not, but there it is. Much earlier I ordered an audit of the ER room bill. Naturally the ER removed the surgical procedure. Inexplicably, the ER doc refused to do the same. No matter How many times I told his office to verify that the ER room had made the adjustment and they need to follow, they kept sending me a letter declaring they had examined my bill and found it correct.
About a month ago I called and informed them that no matter how many times they sent the same incorrect bill, I would sent them the same letter explaining why the bill was incorrect. You should know I had already subtracted the procedure and sent them a check for the balance, so as far as I was concerned, my bill was paid in full.
The office girl explained, "If you do not pay the bill as stated, eventually it will go to collections."
"Fine, then I'll send a letter to the collection agency."
"Your credit rating will be hurt."
"I resent that you are charging me, an uninsured person, for a service that never happened, and then blackmailing my credit rating. I will not pay, ever."
A month passed. Yesterday I got a letter. My bill did not have an adjustment; it had a "charitable discount." The whole process took nearly five months. Total discount on the entire broken ankle incident: 69%