# Wondering if this was a scam attempt **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 17, 2022, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380 "2022-06-17T16:15:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380/41 "2022-06-18T03:08:14Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Your OP says you paid a bill from a doctor and Googling, Froedtert is a hospital. I assume everyone already knows that doctors bill separately from hospitals? Froedert & Medical College of Wisconsin is a system. If you go to a doctor in that system that is who bills you whether you go to the doctors clinic or to his office in a hospital. There is not a separate bill. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380/42 "2022-06-18T10:55:54Z")
One of my doctor’s has his office within St Francis Hospital. When I see him, I get a bill from his office and another bill from Ascension. When his office was in the pro building at St Luke’s on 27th, I’d get a bill from his hospital and another bill from Aurora. I know this isn’t always the case, in fact, before he switched up his business model so that he was an employee of Aurora instead of just an independent doctor leasing office space, I’d just get a single bill from him. Even the Froedtert/MCW website states that [you may receive multiple bills for the same service](https://www.froedtert.com/patients-visitors/bill/faq#multiple-bills). Why the billing system is set up that way, I don’t know. In any case, that’s just to say it’s not always as simple as one visit=one doctor and there’s no way anyone here could know how your visit would be billed with the limited information we have. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380/43 "2022-06-18T11:47:18Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Even the Froedtert/MCW website states that [you may receive multiple bills for the same service](https://www.froedtert.com/patients-visitors/bill/faq#multiple-bills). Sure you may. Depending on what services you had done. But that wasn’t the case here. I received one bill. My suspicion arose from the couldn’t confirm or deny that anyone had called me minutes after that call. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380/44 "2022-06-18T17:47:19Z")
I just last week got a bill from my doctors office that said the bill was more than 30 days old. The visit was barely 30 days before the bill date. No one collected the copay when I was there - but still, how can you say the bill is more than 30 days old when it’s the first one that was sent? I think that this (along with not collecting the copay) is a result of my doctor no longer being in a private individual practice and this is just how the group he joined does things. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380/45 "2022-06-18T20:37:25Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Debt collection gets paid because they buy the debt for less than it’s worth. > > If you owed $500, then the collection agency may have only paid $400 for that debt. It’s the hospital that is out that money. Maybe, some companies will use an in house debt collector, they are company employees but they don’t have to be customer service oriented like the regular billing group. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wondering-if-this-was-a-scam-attempt/966380.md?page=2)