Tracking your medical Information and Billing

Are you keeping records?
If not you should be...
Not only to document your illness but also to track your bills.
In tracking bills, here is a bit of what I've found just this past year:

Over-billed for PC care-should be $20 co-pay, paid at the time of appointment. Insurance was billed $40, insurance did not pay because it was a PC visit and co-pay. Facility charges it to personal pay and sends the bill. (3 in just 2019 so far, more from 2018)

Over-billed for scans- $0 co-pay, facility bills insurance and gets a denial even with a pre-approval - facility re-bills, insurance pays all but XX and charges it to the deductible.
Insurance pays the second bill and again charges part to the deductible. Facility sends the bill for the deductible charges not paid by insurance. (2x's billed, you owe only one charge)

Billed for additional care days - no office visits, yet facility charges to insurance, insurance doesn't pay co-pay and a deductible, facility then bills you the additional.

These bills can add up over time if you are not keeping accurate records. All facilities bill differently and don't send a bill or statement for days the bill is paid in full so the payments you make are not shown on the statements.
These are not bank statements, so they don't show every visit, or encounter making it impossible to follow their billing.

Some will apply insurance payments to different days of service, so again these are not easy to follow.

Facility billing needs to change and show just like a bank statement. The payments received for the specific day of service needs to be applied to that day and no other. If there is an overpayment due to personal pay and insurance payments, that overage needs to be sent out as a notice on what day of service the payment has been applied to allow for proper tracking.

The same goes for tracking your health.

Follow up MRI should always be compared with past MRI for the same area or region. (if not shown on the report, pursue them until they do)

Follow up pc visit should be just that follow up to the issue you went in for the first visit. If additional items are brought to the attention of the attending, then the original and additional should be discussed during the follow-up. Keep good notes and send in writing any that are not.

Read your reports yourself. If suggested follow up is mentioned make sure they schedule you for those follow-ups. Many times one issue is addressed and the suggested other or secondary is missed which can later turn into the primary issue causing more health issues if not treated.

If necessary get a patient advocate. Many times the facility advocates are useless... Keep looking for one that can help you follow all these issues and more.