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I went to a new chiropractor last fall because they took my insurance. They told me they could bill the insurance one of two ways, and I'm not sure which way they did it...I got the statements that showed how much insurance paid and what the office would likely bill me for. (When I had my appointments I did pay $15 co-pay.) So, the office has never billed me. I stopped going last year because I was afraid they would say I owned them money! Has this happened to anyone? Why would they not bill me?
There might be other explanations, but I think that the most likely one is that the Chiropractor's office staff is not very efficient or very skilled regarding the billing of patients.
I used to go to a Dentist who accepted my dental insurance, and I was used to subsequently receiving an accounting from the insurance company regarding how much they had paid the Dentist, and how much I owed, but one year I stopped getting those statements from the insurance company. After the second dental visit again yielded no statement from my insurance company, I phoned the insurer. A search of their records showed that they had never been billed for either of my dental visits that year.
The bottom line is that this dentist later had to shut down his practice, and I suspect that it was all the result of a "billing person" who had not done her job properly.
I do go back, you think there IS a chance they can try to bill me for it? Or can they not say anything because it was last year?
I would say that there is a very real chance that they will bill you, belatedly.
Last year, I got a co-pay bill (something on the order of $14, IIRC) from the Anesthesiologist who had been in attendance when I got my last Colonoscopy. That Colonoscopy had been done 3 years previously!
If the amount in question had been large, I would have questioned it, but because it was such a paltry amount--and because I would really like to have problem-free anesthesia for my next procedure--I simply mailed him a check.
So, yes, it is entirely possible to be billed at a later date.
There's a national radiology outfit, whose name I won't mention, that charges you your copay up front. The amt. charged is always incorrect. Usually they undercharge you the correct amount allowed by the insurer. Then at the beginning of the next calendar year, their auditors apparently notice the error and advise you that you still owe. The problem is that it is always a nasty letter, telling you to pay up at once or else they'll turn over the matter to a collection agency. Really irritating.
This past year the opposite happened. They owed me a refund but the amount should have been higher as they failed to credit me for a bill I paid for one of the 2016 services. It was like pulling teeth to explain the simple math involved. Their billing dept. sounds like a group of young kids.
It's ironic that they hire such unqualified help for their billing dept. given that they otherwise provide excellent non-medical services like scheduling, and the quality of their medical services is top-notch.
Another explanation is that the doctor's office writes off portions of a bill. If the bill is small or they have reasons to believe they can't or won't collect the monies, they won't bill you. I had orthopedic surgery for a horrible finger fracture which involved the insertion of immobilizing pins and wires for several weeks. I paid many copays for the surgery, anesthesia, office visits, etc, and when the time came for the final visit, I was dismayed to find out that the doctor was also going to charge me for the in-office removal of the pins! I was shocked that he was also charging for that (about $130).
It seemed somewhat like ordering a hamburger and having to pay extra for the bun enclosing the meat. Being a Medicare patient, I couldn't afford paying even more for this. I signed a promissory note agreeing to pay it in 4 installments (which I would have) and then promptly forgot about it. More than a year later, I thought about it once again. Why had I not received these bills? I called the office asking why they never billed me, prepared to make the first payment. They told me they wrote off the charge, and I thanked them profusely for doing it.
Why not just pay cash up front and then submit to your insurance co afterwards?
I always pay cash for office visits. If I go to my attorney or my mechanic, they expect to be paid right then and there. Why should a doctor be any different?
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Really irritating.
