Call before you go to a doctor affiliated with a hospital!!

[MommyDOK]

hi all, I just leaned something the hard way and want to share.  Dh has a bad shoulder (from a teenage injury and he's already had 2 surgeries on it) and needed to go see a dr.  There is a very good shoulder doc in our area who comes highly recommended.  Well, when he called Dr Y's office, they said they won't see dh unless he brings his own xrays in.  Ok, fair enough.  Since the law in our state won't let you order your own xrays, he had to go to another orthopedist to get xrays.  That visit was $117.  Seems fair to have 2 xrays and 10 minute visit with the orthopedist.  Ok, fast forward.  So he goes to the new dr who is affiliated with a hospital and he takes two more basic xrays and they talk surgery.  The dr bill was $117, same as other one, but the hospital attached a fee of $237 bc the doc is affiliated with them.

We have super high deductible so we are paying oop for all this. I gave the billing company a call to try to figure out why it's so high and he said it's bc he's affiliated with a hospital. 

So now I have to figure if the hospital is going to attach a fee to his surgery too.  Ugh.  

So shop around friends!! 

[CookiePie]

My DH was going to a specialist for years, then suddenly we get a bill for his last two visits, when the co-pay has always covered it.  It turned out that they stopped accepting our insurance but never informed us and he went every 3 months and that gave them 2 visits to inform him, and they did not!  We worked with an advocacy group, but in the end we had to pay the bill.  Turns out it is the the patient's responsibility to find out if the provider accepts the insurance.  Since he had been a patient for several years they really should have let us know as a courtesy!