Hospital didn’t send updated bill to insurance years ago, who is responsible?

Hi, losing my mind over my situation right now. To keep things simple, a few years ago I had a service done that one of my 2 insurances had approved. There was a mixup with the initial payment but eventually my secondary agreed to pay what remained after my primary paid.

My insurance company obtained an EOB/bill directly from the provider that said there was no balance left because my primary had covered all of it. They informed us of this and we thought everything was resolved.

Now years later the provider is suing me for the bill. I reached out to the hospital and found out that at that time, my primary insurance had paid the full amount and then IMMEDIATELY withdrew it on the same day. Not sure if this was before or after my insurance company obtained the bill from them, but either way, neither I nor my secondary insurance was made aware of the updated bill—they only received the 0 balance one.

I am hoping there is a specific legal precedent that applies to this because the provider's lawyer has filed for a motion on the case so we might not get a trial. Maybe something related to medical billing errors?? Or failure to send an updated bill?

The whole years thing is because the only way they let us know about the bill was through calls from a debt collection agency, never through written letters, and we also got those calls many days after the fact. We initially thought the agency had made a mistake and sent them our exchange with the insurance company, but they never responded. Fast forward to now, where we know the full picture, and it's way too late to appeal with either of our insurance companies. We don't even have accounts with them because they came from my parents' jobs, and now they have new insurance.

submitted by /u/aggroer
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