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Old 02-07-2012, 09:20 PM
 
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I work at a medical billing company and when patients send in money for their bills sometimes the patient over pays their bill, weather it be a billing mistake or a mistake by the patient, we do not refund the patients so we are keeping all this extra money that does not belong to the company. Is this illegal and if so who can i contact about this?
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Old 02-07-2012, 09:29 PM
 
35,095 posts, read 51,103,864 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crissyl24 View Post
I work at a medical billing company and when patients send in money for their bills sometimes the patient over pays their bill, weather it be a billing mistake or a mistake by the patient, we do not refund the patients so we are keeping all this extra money that does not belong to the company. Is this illegal and if so who can i contact about this?

Lots of companies do this ie: utility companies, cell phone companies, insurance companies. They just put a credit on the next months bill for the customer.
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Old 02-07-2012, 09:45 PM
 
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Yes it is illegal and is covered under the laws of restitution. It's not black & white however. For example, if the over-payment does not create a loss for the payer (i.e it gets translated into additional services rendered at a future date), then it may be legal to keep.
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Old 02-07-2012, 09:49 PM
 
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The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery:

It does not fall under that law unless the amount is NOT credited to the customer/patient OR never returned in check form.

It is done by business on a daily basis. I currently have a credit on my vehicle insurance because I did not have the statement in front of me and I did not remember the exact amount of the payment due so I rounded up and made the payment so it would not be late. The next statement I received shows a credit in the amount of the difference that I had rounded up to.
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Old 02-07-2012, 09:52 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,062,294 times
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Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery:

It does not fall under that law unless the amount is NOT credited to the customer/patient OR never returned in check form.

It is done by business on a daily basis. I currently have a credit on my vehicle insurance because I did not have the statement in front of me and I did not remember the exact amount of the payment due so I rounded up and made the payment so it would not be late. The next statement I received shows a credit in the amount of the difference that I had rounded up to.
The OP implied the money is never refunded. I took this to mean that the customer never saw their money again.
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Old 02-08-2012, 09:00 AM
 
Location: Atlanta & NYC
6,616 posts, read 13,800,678 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crissyl24 View Post
I work at a medical billing company and when patients send in money for their bills sometimes the patient over pays their bill, weather it be a billing mistake or a mistake by the patient, we do not refund the patients so we are keeping all this extra money that does not belong to the company. Is this illegal and if so who can i contact about this?
Of course it's illegal; it's called stealing. Taking money from someone, even if operating under a business entity is not legal. Does your company at least credit the clients' accounts? Like give them the rollover credit that they overpaid on previously?
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Old 02-08-2012, 09:41 AM
 
Location: Chicagoland
5,749 posts, read 10,353,950 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by crissyl24 View Post
I work at a medical billing company and when patients send in money for their bills sometimes the patient over pays their bill, weather it be a billing mistake or a mistake by the patient, we do not refund the patients so we are keeping all this extra money that does not belong to the company. Is this illegal and if so who can i contact about this?
Does the money appear as a credit on the customer's account or does it simply "disappear" from the customer's acct.? Do you handle the books? If it is applied as a credit, the customer may simply request a refund after seeing their monthly statement or when they are paying at their next appt. I do this all the time at Dr.'s offices as I never know exactly what portion will be covered by insurance. I think most people understand how this works.

If the over pmt money is not being applied as a credit to the customer's acct (e.g. the original invoice amt. is increased to cover overpmt., or the overpmt is coded as a late fee, etc.) that is illegal.
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Old 02-08-2012, 05:55 PM
 
1,378 posts, read 4,352,964 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CSD610 View Post
The law of restitution is the law of gains-based recovery:

It does not fall under that law unless the amount is NOT credited to the customer/patient OR never returned in check form.

It is done by business on a daily basis. I currently have a credit on my vehicle insurance because I did not have the statement in front of me and I did not remember the exact amount of the payment due so I rounded up and made the payment so it would not be late. The next statement I received shows a credit in the amount of the difference that I had rounded up to.
Once out of curiosity, I intentionally overpaid my phone bill by a penny. The next month my bill showed me with a credit of $0.01.
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Old 02-08-2012, 09:15 PM
 
24,488 posts, read 41,062,294 times
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Originally Posted by LongtimeBravesFan View Post
Once out of curiosity, I intentionally overpaid my phone bill by a penny. The next month my bill showed me with a credit of $0.01.
That's pretty standard among recurring bills. If the credit remains for an extended period of time, they'll cut a check. Usually the credit is used up in the next bill however.
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Old 02-09-2012, 10:30 AM
 
Location: Palo Alto
12,149 posts, read 8,400,602 times
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Does your company record the overpayment as a liability or do they record it as revenue? My practice for years was to record all duplicate payments as liabilities. I was always amazed at the number of times we were double-paid. If we had a credit on our books we sent a statement and a note to deduct it from future transactions.

If they simply book it to revenue, it is probably unethical. Illegal is another matter. It depends on their accounting practices. Some companies on a cash basis might record all payments as revenue, and when they refund the money they reduce revenue. There are lots of variables.

Why don't you ask somebody at your company?
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