I received a bill from the dentist for Mr. R. There was a note on the statement saying that they are working with our insurance to resolve any outstanding claims and if the insurance doesn't pay we will be responsible.
I took this to mean that I didn't have to pay the bill as the dentist office was still waiting on insurance.
Yesterday I cleaned out my purse and re-read the bill. After re-reading it, I thought maybe I was supposed to pay the $124 total that has a due date of today and the rest of the charges are what is pending. The statement does say amount due $124.20 due date 1/6/15. I've had them threaten to turn me in to collections before because I forgot to pay a $10 bill once so to be safe, I almost just went ahead and paid this online.
But I decided to call and ask since the wording on this bill is so confusing. And the dentist office told me NOT to pay it. Wow! I didn't expect them to tell me that. The person I talked to told me to just wait until all the insurance payments go through. Awesome!!!
I've always been told NOT to pay a medical bill that clearly states "pending insurance payment" as sometimes the insurance company will tell the provider to reduce certain fees that might not fall within their contract guidelines :) Just something to think about next time (and that irks me, collections for $10 when you are a regular client?!)
ReplyDeleteI'm going to wait from now on.
DeleteI plan to start setting some money aside in case we do have to pay this bill but hopefully the insurance will handle it.
Good thing you did not pay it, that's a lot of money!
ReplyDeleteWhat a happy coincidence! You must've been relieved to have found out that paying that huge amount of money was unnecessary. Good thing you called your dentist. In any case, I hope the insurance payment has already gone through the wire. Keep us posted about it. All the best! :)
ReplyDeleteFreddie Gray @ Ballantyne Dentistry