Legal Question

[stitch]

Question........when you are dealing with a company that records their conversations (medical billing for example), do I have any rights to these conversations / recordings? Aren’t they legally obligated to say the conversation is being recorded prior to conversation starting?
Here it is……….

3 trips to the emergency room over the last 1.5 years for “my family”……we play rough and are “frequent flyers”. For starters, my questions ARE NOT about whether I owe money or not………it’s about trying to protect a perfect credit record and whether I am entitled to information.
First bill came for my out of pocket expenses……we paid in full over a few months.

Second bill came….start payments…..3rd bill came….start payments…..paying bill 2 and 3 simultaneously. A billing question came up with insurance company (they caught it). We were told by the medical office (all 3 bills are / were coming from the same place) to stop all payments until insurance issue was settled. When things were settled, they would start the billing process again. Insurance ended up paying off more of the out of pocket….won’t go into those details. It took 2 months between the time we “stopped” payment and the insurance was re-filed / settled”
We start receiving a bill for incident #2 again……..no bill for incident 3. Assume it’s still in the works. Shortly after billing for incident 2 starts back up, we get a collection notice……incident 3 was turned over to a collection agency for not paying our bill the last 2 months…….. Say what?
So……billing department says stop all payments for all incidents. They stop sending out statements on both…….start the statements back up on one but not the other. When asked why, they stated “we informed you in a phone conversation that we would not be sending out statements on issue # 3 any more”……..so why would you send out statements on one but not the other? “Sir, all I can tell you is that we informed you, I can’t say why”…..say what?

I was one of the patients…..so my wife had to have my permission to discuss with all involved parties (it’s their policy)……I had given permission 2 times previously over the phone. In the conversation today, it started out that they needed my permission because it hadn’t been granted……I said OK again (my wife is the insurance queen). As we are discussing my account……billing people explain various conversations they had with my wife regarding my account…….whoa wait! You just said that you couldn’t talk to my wife until I gave you permission 3 minutes ago, yet you are reading back statements / conversations you previously had with my wife……..silence……they said they would check all recorded conversations and call me back tomorrow. I told them I had no confidence on what they were doing on their end and asked if I had a right to their recorded conversations and the answer was no.

Again…….this isn’t about the $$$$.....it’s about protecting a perfect credit record. Do I have a right to the recorded conversations? Also…….I had no clue the conversations were recorded. Legally, aren’t they supposed to disclose that info prior to the conversation? My wife has a solid paper trail on our end......
It has been a comedy of errors on their end…….

[420 racin]

I would like to know this answer, cause I just got off the phone with the insuracne company for somethign similar. Had a son 6 months ago, insurance is still "reviewing" some of the claims/bills. Hospital is talking about collections if we don't pay, but the insurance company won't give an answer. They won't talk to me without wife's permission, says they have to mail a form to her, can't do it over the phone, but i'm listed on the policy with her. They were supposed to call her back last week and the week before, but never did. The lady wouldn't talk to me, but i gave her what i thought about the situation and the fact that they been jerking us around for 6 months now. Oughta told her don't worry about it cause Obama care was paying mine......but I actually pay taxes and work so i am part of the Obama Care that does the paying!

[Goose]

From what I understand, the credit reporting agencies that determine your credit rating don't count medical bills because everyone is in arrears paying their medical bills. Collection threats seem to be a normal part of the process.

[MudHog]

[booger]

Don't know about legal ownership of recordings, however as to the rest of it...............

My wife is a cancer survivor so I received a PhD in insurance hassle/miscommunication/in-network/out-of-network etc. etc.

I resorted to physical letters sent certified mail return receipt. Billing was a fiasco i.e. numerous bills vaguely the same:
Rush Hospital Services
Rush Medical Services
Rush Imaging
Rush Clinic
Rush Associates and on and on and on.

The letters provided solid "evidence" and no more he-said-she said, and yes it was a hassle that cost $5.65 each time. But it got peoples attention.

Long story short, my credit was badly dinged up (or so I thought), but I just don't care. I wasn't going to pay the dang bill I had just paid or was being adjusted, reviewed etc. etc. etc.

My banker has indicated to me that a little odd ball medical debt is the new normal and if that's all you got,................ they ignore it. He pulled my credit and said no problem here, and I was really worried. Your banker may have different "policy".

[Seymore]

The ICD codes have a good bit to do with things getting paid. There is a book that is updated every so often that contain codes for every medical procedure and diagnosis known to man at that time. The code is what gets stuff paid and not paid. For instance your insurance may cover a general checkup once a year. You go for a checkup and the doc finds something else. If the code doesn't show the general checkup, it doesn't count and won't get paid. Then there are providers that are in a managed care network and the network only pays an agreed upon price per the contract that was signed by the health provider. A person can go insane just sorting through all the mess.

[bhuggins]

I've got nothing. But I can tell you that you have good credit at the veterinary clinic and we won't turn you over to collections until you've had a personal phone call.

It is a small town and a relatively small hospital. I would keep moving up the chain of command until I spoke to the right folks.

[stitch]

[SHANE704]

all i can add to this, is MS is a "one-party" state....as long as one of the party's on either end of phone call knows they are being recorded....then its legal. They dont have to announce or anything...as long as they know its being recorded

[mfalkner]

My experience with medical billing is that it's a racket. I've actually gotten "collection notices" on the day we came home from the hospital before. I have been double-billed more times than I can count. Get EVERYTHING in writing. Take detailed notes - who you speak with, date, time, account numbers. Keep meticulous records when you make a payment - what facility, account #'s etc. We've dealt with con artists, liars, apathetic minimum wage clerks, you name it. However, usually if you have your stuff together, you can get it sorted out. I've had luck for example calling the hospital and asking for the billing administrator, calmly explaining my issues and demonstrating that we have and do want to pay our bills, and asking for specific help. One time we even helped catch a person who was fraudulently re-billing old claims. Many people, especially older folks, will pay a medical bill without question and this lowlife was pulling 3-4 year old claims and rebilling them.

Over the past 20 years we've probably paid out over a hundred grand (I quit counting for my sanity's sake) in out of pocket medical costs - and I'm not complaining about that because we're all alive and we were able to pay them. Just framing out my level of experience with it. People make mistakes, but also the insurance companies are great at stalling/balking over nitpick details such as incorrect billing codes, so you have to stay after it. It can become like a job sometimes.