Tara got a call from someone in the collections department from IHC today. The lady was insistent that Tara needed to pay part or all of her $40 bill today, or risk being sent off to collections. Tara didn't let the lady bully her. (Good for her...) She asked when the bill was from, and at first the lady was saying something about late May. Then Tara lit into her about turning something over to collections right away after it cleared insurance. The lady backed off and said it was something from late March, and still wanted the money right away, because they had sent three bills and hadn't heard from us at all. Tara then explained that we paid a large chunk at the end of April, and a chunk at the end of May, and they would get more money on Thursday, after we get paid. Tara had to explain that we paid online. The billing lady had to go look it up, and low and behold, we had been paying them money! Shocker! Good for Tara. The lady should just be glad that Tara didn't just have them call my cell phone. I would have played bad cop.
Listen up IHC people: I paid online because I didn't want to have to deal with you people. It's bad enough that you are billing things under three different accounts. Tara has been over there every week for months, and she's having a baby next week. We get bills from you constantly, in differing states - just billed, off to insurance, and finally "patient's responsibility". When they get to the state of "patient responsibility", the bill goes in the file with all the other bills to pay at the end of the month.
Additionally, your online bill payment site poorly designed. I log in, I can see the three accounts, but right this very minute, two of the accounts show the balance for "Patient Responsibility", which I know about and am ready to pay, and the third has a large balance and just says "pending insurance". You have little 'information' buttons, but they don't seem to work, so it's hard to see if the third balance is the one that has the $40 on it or not. Too bad for you, but I am not paying money against that third account while it says that. I will wait for the insurance to post, and pay then. If it doesn't happen before the end of this month, you will have to wait until July to get your $40. (In the meantime, I will feel free to pay down the other two accounts, since those appear to post against things I have seen come through insurance recently.) Now, you may say, "but sir, if you are keeping those bills in the file, can't you just pay the money?" I am pretty sure there is an outside chance of me reacting badly to that question, since we are already giving you people a portion of our monthly income...
P.S. If you have problems with this, call my cell. I gave the number to you the last time I made a payment. I would be glad to talk to you about your little problem, and have some suggestions as to what you can do with your online payment website.
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