Do you think your insurance company and the medical vendors will handle your paperwork for you flawlessly?

Will, actually, the do a pretty good job most of the time, but…

However, when you have any kind of complicated procedure, like anything involving an operation, many different parties participate and line up to be paid. Suddenly you are not just dealing with your insurance company and the hospital, but doctors, nurses, anesthesia folks, etc. Each one has their own little cute company and all will attempt to bill your insurance carrier.

Why am I writing this you say? Well, you would think when you check in for your procedure and have them make a photocopy of your insurance card that the information will make its way accurately to the various vendors. However, this is still not very automated and they will get your member or group number wrong some times.

Here is the real kicker though. When this happens each party will very aggressively defend they do things just perfect and it must be the other vendor who has made the mistake. Childish behavior comes to mind.

Anyway, after I called the vendor, then the carrier, then the vendor again, I forced her to repeat my membership number back to me. Aha, they transposed some numbers. She did not apologize and just proceeded to make the change and re-submitted the claim to the carrier.

You know, life happens. Mistakes happen. That’s OK. Please just don’t pretend you are too perfect to make a mistake. Their reaction when I caught them was just like a kid being caught with a hand in the cookie jar.

Oh well, life goes on… just don’t forget to keep an eye on all the myriad bills when it is your turn to have a medical procedure more complicated than a visit to your regular doctor. I conclude by saying the actual quality of the medical care I received was spectacular; I much prefer the mistakes occur in the back office rather than in the doc with a knife.