I take prescription drugs for high blood pressure and cholesterol. I've been taking them for years. Each year I make a routine appointment with my doctor to get my prescriptions renewed. This year's was two months ago. During my 30 minute appointment I saw the doctor for less than 10 minutes.
A few days ago I received a message from Valley Health that appeared on their MyChart website saying that I owed them $240. This was a first.
I sent Valley Health the following message:
MyChart shows that I owe $240. as follows:
billed $359.,
insurance covered -$119,
balance $240.
Does the $119. "insurance covered" include both Medicare Parts A and B and my AARP/UnitedHealthcare Medicare Supplement insurance?
Please explain.
Thank you.
PS Part of the problem was because the claim wasn't showing up on UnitedHealthCare's website. Finally, after TWO MONTHS I received a copy of the claim in the mail.
I received the following MyChart response from Valley Health:
"Thank you for contacting Valley Health. We charged you $359.00 but Medicare said that we should have charged you $417.01. of the $417.01 Medicare paid $153.21 and applied $240.00 towards your deductible and then Medicare applied $23.80 towards your coinsurance.
Then your secondary paid the coinsurance of $23.80 but they do not pay your Medicare deductible so that is why you had a balance of $240.00. Please let us know if you have additional questions. Thank you"
WHAT?!?
Medicare is a government program connected with Social Security. We paid into Social Security and Medicare with payroll taxes during our working years. Since when does Medicare tell a Medicare recipient's doctor that he should charge MORE for his services? Since when did Medicare become an advocate for the healthcare business? Why isn't Medicare advocating Medicare recipients?
TALK ABOUT THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG!!!
This being an election year we're hearing a LOT about inflation. Most of it is about low-ticket items--like gas, groceries, etc.
What you DON'T hear about is HIGH ticket items like taxes, housing, transportation and medical care.
That's because the tail is wagging the dog.
attribution: Richmond SPCA and flickr
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