Yet another insurance story...

I use a BiPAP at night. (Kind of like a CPAP, but two pressures.) For a couple of years, I had a company sending me supplies in the mail, and I started getting quite a stock pile. After a while I tried getting them to back off on the shipments, to mixed results. I finally got them to stop sending for good at the beginning of the year. I will start getting supplies when I need them again, I suppose.

But I won't use the same company. Their parent company is a company called 'Rotech". I don't know much about them, but I know they do the billing for the local company that was providing the supplies. They have been kind of sketchy about getting things billed on time, however. In the beginning of 2010, they started catching up. I figured everything was done, until the end of last year, when they billed me for two shipments of 6 air filters. (at $240 for each shipment.)

Something went wrong when they billed insurance, insurance rejected the bill. Three times. Then the company decided to go ahead and bill me for the 'Allowed amount' - $336 - for three air filters. It looks like something you would stick in your vacuum, that you can get from the store - $5 for three of them. I think there is a pretty big markup, just because they are 'medical supplies'. Maybe that's what really is wrong with health care in this country...

Anyway, I wasn't paying that. I have more than 12 of these in my box of supplies, and was perfectly willing to send them back. I decided to fight the parent company first. In January, I talked to them, and convinced them to rebill the thing, hoping this would work. It didn't, the insurance company rejected again.

In March, I spent the better part of a day calling the company, the insurance company, back and forth over and over trying to get the story straight. The insurance company wanted them to verify the dates of service and quantity. Rotech said "huh?" I talked to a supervisor. They indicated that they would do it, and rebill. Then I started calling once a week, asking them why I haven't seen the billing go through yet. They assured me that it was in process. Since then I have gotten two bills requesting the $336. I called at those times as well, they told me to just ignore it, the billing is still in process.

I am not sure why it took them another four months to get around to it, but yesterday I got an email from my insurance that the claim was processed. Not only was it processed, but they paid out on it. It's like a miracle! An insurance miracle! Anyway, the patient responsibility portion of the bill was $21.35. That's about what you would pay for the vacuum filters if you got twelve of them, I find that kind of interesting. If I thought I could get away with it, I would strongly consider paying with loose change, mostly pennies. All in all, I think I "won".

I missed work that afternoon back in March to call over and over, but it saved me over 300 dollars, so I suppose it was worth it. I also won't use a medical supply company again that has Rotech as a parent company, if I can get away with it, just so you know...