Month: November 2021

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Medicare Blunders For You To Prevent

If you have Medicare the way to find out if you are going to be charged for a procedure or for anything you use your medical insurance for is read this.

First of all, your doctor prescribes some type of procedure for you to have either in his office or at an outpatient surgery center. The doctor’s office receives the authorization for you to have this procedure.

What is it going to cost you?

You think because you have an HMO or other type of insurance that it will be covered.

Don’t assume anything.

The only way to find out for sure is to get the CPT and ICD codes from your doctor’s office  and call your insurance company. In this way, you should have an accurate amount that will be billed to you or it might not be exact but you will have an idea.

When the procedure is over and the bills come in you won’t stress over the copay that was the patient’s responsibility.

All this information is in my book Medicare and Other Health Insurances.

Thank you for reading my article. Copyright Linda Meckler 2021

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Medicare Is Tricky

Why is there mass confusion when it comes to Medicare? Even when you think you have a handle on it and understand your Medicare plan it can backfire on you.

I needed to go to the emergency room a few months ago for a minor problem with slivers of wood in my foot, but I needed to have this visit. The doctor spent ten minutes with me and I was fine.

I expected an emergency room copay of $85.00. That was supposed to be the only charge.

I received the bill and didn’t think anything about it. Then I received a bill for over a thousand dollars. What was this bill for?

This bill was for the physician’s bill which was sent from a separate billing service. I began to hyperventilate. The date of service which is what is the most important thing on the bill was missing. I called the phone number and found out the bill had never been billed to my medical insurance they didn’t have that information.

If you have read my book Medicare and Other Health Insurances it talks about this. After being on hold forever both at the billing company and my insurance company the bill will be sent to my medical insurance. But are they going to pay all of it? Will there be a co-pay left for me to pay?

When I talked to my medical insurance, I asked the question of why this bill when I was only supposed to pay for the ER visit.

  1. I thought it was an error.
  2. I thought I might have gone to a hospital that was not contracted to with my medical insurance. (I was told that I could go to any hospital for an ER visit. If admitted I needed to go to a specific hospital.)

When I asked my insurance company If this hospital was contracted with them? I didn’t get an answer. I will have to wait and see if it is paid or denied on my explanation of benefits and for what reason.

3. They didn’t have my medical insurance information.

Thank you for reading my article. Copyright 2021 Linda Meckler