I had the displeasure of dealing with a local HCA facility over the past several months. I only went there once, but their billing practices were the gift that kept on giving.
I had to go to their ER after a particularly nasty allergic reaction to an antibiotic was causing me shortness of breath, and swelling throughout my face and throat. The service at the facility was great, but the billing process was the opposite. Apparently as a matter of policy, HCA doesn't call insurance companies to follow up on claims. They call their patients. I received no less than 4 phone calls and one letter asking me to follow up on my claim and in every case, a call to the insurer would have been far more productive than a call to me. They called me 3 times on one issue but I blew off the first two calls, assuming they couldn't actually be asking me to do their jobs for them. When the second issue came up, I knew better than to think they were competent and followed up right away.
The first time, I discovered that they'd mailed the claim to the wrong address. Why were they submitting paper anyway? What decade is this? The second time, it turned out the claim had already paid, but the payment was in the mail. They contacted me to resolve both issues. But what's my incentive to make sure a claim is paid quickly? I know eventually my insurer is going to pay, why would I care if it takes HCA 10 days or 10 months to get their payment? It did take about 8 months for them to get paid because they decided to make me do their work for them.
Initially I was going to swear off HCA facilities all together. But the service I received was actually pretty good. Maybe instead, I'll go there the next time I need hospital services and give them a variety of false addresses so they keep submitting claims that get lost in the mail. Maybe eventually they'll figure out that a call to the insurer will give them better information and won't piss off the people who decide whether they'll get paid or not, the patients.
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