EOB says paid, have outstanding bill

Hi there! I’m not sure if this is the correct place for this, but I’m in need of assistance.

This summer, I was transferred from a local hospital to one in a larger city via ambulance. The ambulance and both hospitals are all under the same group (like imagine St. Vincent Town A, St. Vincent town B, St. Vincent ambulance). Because I had had a major surgery, and this was a complication from said surgery, I had already met my max out of pocket and everything should be 100% covered. The two hospitals are roughly 30 minutes apart, for what it’s worth.

In late October, I received a bill for over $1,000. They say that all ambulances are out of network. No matter what. So I talked to my insurance person at work, and apparently my insurance is reprocessing it.

I got a call today saying I’d be going to collections if I did not pay the bill in a short period of time. I told him all of the above and that insurance says they are in network. He said they would have to send them a copy of the contract to prove that, but I had to get it in by the end of the month or I would be going to collections. I then called insurance, and the representative told me they would start reprocessing it, that I’d probably owe money after that, and I should go ahead and pay it if I didn’t want to be sent to collections. My contact in our HR said that wasn’t what her contact said, and she’d reach out.

Obviously, I’m stressed about this. I know $1,000 isn’t a huge amount (compared to other costs in the medical field) in the grand scheme of things, but with everything else this year, it’s a lot.

See also  I got an exception to coverage for a procedure at Stanford medical center that is next week. I’ve been waiting over a year for this appt. Now Stanford is saying there’s an additional CPT code that was left off the authorization. What can I do to not have to reschedule?

My friend suggested that this would be covered by the no surprise billing law, and I’m kind of at a loss on where to go from here. If I have an EOB showing I owe $0, I don’t understand how they are charging me. And I’ve tried to show the billing company the EOB and they refuse to look at it.

Does anyone have any type of advice? Thank you.

Edit to add: age 38, zip 42430, income $39,000.

submitted by /u/stephanne423
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