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I have been seeing a gastroenterologist (GI doc) since the beginning of the year. I really like him, personally, as a doctor. I despise his front office staff and I am at the point of switching doctors purely because of his office staff (and insurance issues that they seem to have caused.) They are lazy, incompetent, and apathetic. They do not return my phone calls when I leave messages (either with their voice mail service or one of the receptionists directly.) They would not pass messages on to the doctor for me. One time I called and told them I had a question about my medication and asked the doctor to call me back. They said no problem. I never heard back from anyone.
But I could have overlooked that stuff...up till now. My last visit with this doc was a couple of months ago and was just an office visit, which he typically charges $95 for. I have insurance and my co-pay for a "specialist" is $35. This is what I have always paid when going to see him for an office visit and this is what I paid during my last visit. Then a month later, I received a bill from them for $60, the remaining balance of the visit. I hopped on my insurance's website and checked my claims, and it said that my GI doctor was not an in-network provider. Well, he'd always been in-network before now and my insurance never had an issue paying for my visits to him before, so I called the insurance up to figure out what was going on.
Turns out my GI doctor, while still considered to be accepting United Healthcare, is no longer contracted by them under any of their insurance plans. Basically, they never renewed their contract with UHC and so UHC no longer covers them, under any of their insurance plans. I called my GI doctor's office up and asked wtf was up with this and they said they had no idea, they should still be covered by UHC but that they would check on it. UHC basically told me that it looked like someone at the doc's office had forgotten to fill out the paperwork to renew their contract, and I told the person I talked to at the doc's office this. She promised to call me back as soon as she talked to their office manager.
A week later and no callback (no surprise there) I called them back and talked to someone else, who had no idea what I was talking about. She never heard of any issues with UHC and couldn't answer any of my questions, and told me I should call their billing office instead. Fine. So I get the number and call them.
They also have no idea what's going on and told me they'd look into it and call me back. That was nearly a month ago. I tried calling them a couple of times for an update, and each time, my "account is still under investigation" and they'd let me know when they had more info.
Forget it. Not worth my time. I am going to write a check for the $60 and mail it to them along with a letter explaining in detail why I will not go back to them while they employ such incompetent people who can't even return a phone call.
But I could have overlooked that stuff...up till now. My last visit with this doc was a couple of months ago and was just an office visit, which he typically charges $95 for. I have insurance and my co-pay for a "specialist" is $35. This is what I have always paid when going to see him for an office visit and this is what I paid during my last visit. Then a month later, I received a bill from them for $60, the remaining balance of the visit. I hopped on my insurance's website and checked my claims, and it said that my GI doctor was not an in-network provider. Well, he'd always been in-network before now and my insurance never had an issue paying for my visits to him before, so I called the insurance up to figure out what was going on.
Turns out my GI doctor, while still considered to be accepting United Healthcare, is no longer contracted by them under any of their insurance plans. Basically, they never renewed their contract with UHC and so UHC no longer covers them, under any of their insurance plans. I called my GI doctor's office up and asked wtf was up with this and they said they had no idea, they should still be covered by UHC but that they would check on it. UHC basically told me that it looked like someone at the doc's office had forgotten to fill out the paperwork to renew their contract, and I told the person I talked to at the doc's office this. She promised to call me back as soon as she talked to their office manager.
A week later and no callback (no surprise there) I called them back and talked to someone else, who had no idea what I was talking about. She never heard of any issues with UHC and couldn't answer any of my questions, and told me I should call their billing office instead. Fine. So I get the number and call them.
They also have no idea what's going on and told me they'd look into it and call me back. That was nearly a month ago. I tried calling them a couple of times for an update, and each time, my "account is still under investigation" and they'd let me know when they had more info.
Forget it. Not worth my time. I am going to write a check for the $60 and mail it to them along with a letter explaining in detail why I will not go back to them while they employ such incompetent people who can't even return a phone call.
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