So, I got a bill today. I opened it, not realizing it was a bill, and without looking at the name on the envelope. Once I realized something was off, I started comparing details.
The envelope:
The return address is a medical facility in Plattsburgh NY.
The name on the envelope is not mine.
The address on the envelope IS mine.
The bill:
The name of the facility is the same as the envelope.
The address of the facility is different from the envelope.
The name of the patient on the bill is the same as on the envelope.
The address for the patient on the bill is not the same as the one on the envelope.
Here’s where it gets weird. I HAVE been to the facility named and located on the envelope. I haven’t been there in over 2 years though. I also haven’t been there since I moved back to MA. I have never given them my new address. I have never heard of the woman on the envelope/bill. I have never even driven through the town of the facility on the bill. The address on the envelope wasn’t a forwarding sticker. It was hand-written by someone who has my CURRENT address even though I never gave it to them.
There’s no chance in hell that the previous resident of this house ever went to that facility as he was a 100 year old man. I doubt he needed the services of Planned Parenthood. He didn’t have any children and even if he did, a potential daughter would have been way too old to be using Planned Parenthood.
The bill is over 6 months past due. Gee, I wonder why.
After one of my knee surgeries, I got a Blue Cross bill with someone else’s name and Blue Cross number, and my address. Turns out we both had similar surgeries by the same orthopod on the same day. We had the same first name so somehow they screwed up the recordkeeping. At least I got the surgery I was supposed have, and on the proper knee. They didn’t seem too concerned when I called them about the mixup. This was at Mount Auburn, where a neurosurgeon got fired a few years earlier for leaving a patient under anesthesia in the middle of a back surgery while he made a quick run to the bank before it closed.
That being said, I love my surgeon, and in the actual prep and OR all the necessary checklists were done, like asking me repeatedly who I was and which knee it was, and the surgeon signing the knee before anesthesia.
But yeah, the billing department didn’t fill me with confidence.
When I had my tubal, I had an allergic reaction to the stitches and went into the ER. Months later I got a bill for $900 for that ten minute ER visit - closer inspection showed that the bill indicated I’d been admitted and stayed at the hospital for two days, which of course I hadn’t done. Obviously a billing error.
The kicker? My insurance company paid the bill - the $900 was my 10% copay! The diagnosis for this expensive stay? “Follow up care”. Yeah…
