We hear all kinds of medical bill excuses when calling patients with past due accounts. People come up with all kinds of creative excuses. Just when I think I've heard them all from my years doing this, I'll hear a completely new one. So we create our own top ten excuses for not paying a medical bill.
The list is completely subjective but I tried to rank by the frequency we hear the excuse.
If you have any interesting medical bill excuses to add, please submit them at the bottom of the page.
I can appreciate an honest answer.
This is typically after we’ve been sending them statements for three to six months.
Depending on a patient's insurance coverage and the time spent in the hospital, a providers charges are small compared to some of the hospital bills they may face. Many times a patient in this situation will offer to work out a payment plan which many providers will welcome.
I can certainly understand this excuse. Depending on the practice management software, the patient statement can be cryptic and difficult for someone without a medical background to understand.
If the statement doesn't have an understandable description along with the medical billing codes, it's up to the patient to figure it out. Most people don't have the patience for that.
Sadly many times they are right because their payments were never entered. Sometimes entering payments is a low priority when a provider is short on office help. So entering payments into the medical billing software becomes a low priority.
This is usually followed by the specific reason. You would be surprised how much information people you don’t know are willing to share with you.
You would be surprised how many patients may actually have never received a bill due to the sloppy billing practices of some offices. Or don't you love it when you receive a bill so long after a visit that you can't even remember what its for? I've seen the his happen over a year after the date of service.
One of the biggest reasons is because a providers billing is in such a mess that when they bring someone in to straighten things out, they have to get the current claims submitted (or corrected) before they work on the accounts receivables - or patient responsibilities. Some times a claim has been denied or rejected and by the time the medical biller figures it out, it can be several months later.
That's right - a good old fashioned grudge! They don't like the doctor so they don't feel obligated to pay for his or her services. Many times this would be followed by a statement like "Go ahead and send me to collections - I don't care!"
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Mar 31, 18 09:47 AM
Besides networking .. visiting their offices, how else can you attract their business? When you close the collections month, how do you bill the physicians?
Mar 31, 18 09:36 AM
I have a potential client that is requested claim scrubbing resolutions (only corrections on claims submission errors) and insurance verification on the
Mar 31, 18 09:28 AM
The provider that I bill for just advised that he has a new tax ID. What is the process for this change? Would every insurance company need to be contacted?
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