Last night we went out with our Cornell Friends, and The Dartmouth Man chimed in.
He wondered what the B at the end of his wife's number meant, and went online to research it.
"Aged Wife."We laughed and laughed and I felt marginally better about being Officially Old and then I went home and discovered that my T means
Uninsured - Entitled to Health Insurance Benefits HIB (Medicare Part A) under deemed or renal provisions; or Fully insured who have elected entitlement only to Health Insurance Benefits (Medicare Part A) - (and not yet entitled to retirement benefits - entitled to Medicare but not yet drawing Social Security Benefits)It's gobbledygook to me. The grammar is so bad, I won't even try to decipher it. I'll just laminate my card and stop obsessing.
I never looked at that letter before but from what I understand after a quick Goggle search is that you didn't sign up for part B? I have a B on mine but never use my Medicare card because we carry a supplement and our clinic is an HMO; so they only want the Advantage card.
ReplyDeleteIt can be totally silly how they do things. A year and a half ago, in '15, I went in for a wellness visit (what Medicare called a physical). I paid no copay at the time because it was supposed to be free. Then December '16m we got a bill from our clinic for $122. Since I had not been in since that year before, I went looking for why. It was that 'free' wellness visit. The clinic had billed them 6 times since to get the money. I called the clinic to see what had happened. It turned out that the first time they had the wrong code. They changed it and it was still rejected. I was annoyed at all the paperwork that had been wasted. My husband got out the thick book for what was covered that year (we get one every year) and he called the clinic again. They had never had the correct code-- for that year. So they submitted it again.
To be honest, we have debated just paying it to be sure it does not go to a collection agency through all this. I don't know whether to blame ACA, our supplement or Medicare-- so many possibilities. It's not Kansas anymore, Toto.
It's the coding error. Their fault, your worry. Once there's a coding error (according to a gym rat friend who runs a "we code for you" business) all hell breaks loose.
DeleteYou can call your Congressperson and ask them to help you fix it; that's what they are there for (it's Constituent Services). Poor Clinic, poor Rain.
a/b
the clinic was great in how they handled it. We've been with them nearly 40 years and that might help. The weird part is they changed the code for '16 and it was the problem. It's such a small sum, that it'd have been tempting to just pay it since we like our clinic. To me, the weird part is changing a code every year with no clue about the year before for charging. Our doctor there is very frustrated with the red tape connected to anything he does-- and will retire as soon as he economically can. That's the bad part-- how it impacts our providers and all in the name of bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteOdd, Rain, how the clinic didn't bill Medicare first. My husband has 3 medical insurance sources--Medicare, my school district, and his veteran's ins--Tricare. That's the order the medical people in this neck of the woods bill for any costs he may have. I have the school district and Tricare so that's the order my costs are billed. Coding is the secret to all of this, however. Later this year I will be caught up in that Medicare world.
ReplyDeleteThey billed whoever they billed since September '15 without notifying us. I think if they had notified us, it would have been solved sooner. When you carry an Advantage, it goes to them first as they cover things Medicare does not. I don't even show my Medicare card at the clinic. The thing is a lot of places won't take just Medicare because it won't pay as much of their charges. It's kind of a mess and likely will be for awhile as it gets worked out as to exactly what Americans are willing to pay.
ReplyDeleteI dread Medicare. Health insurance is complicated enough and then to add Medicare into the mix just confuses the heck out of me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree the description is so unintelligible. Makes no sense.
We just need a universal health care system and not all of these different plans. I just hope Congress does not repeal the ACA. So many people will be hurt.
Sending hugs.
Megan xxx