Billing Confusion- Can someone please explain like I’m 5?! I’m so confused what’s going on.
Hi guys, I'm having trouble understanding the whole process my former insurance is running me through and hope maybe someone can explain it where I can understand.
So it started back in April 2024, I was sent for neuropsychology testing at a hospital facility where during that time I was under the NJFamilyCare plan of HorizonNJHealth. The doctor and facility were said to be in network and I was supposed to be covered 100% under the plan I had because I was legit broke.. I had the insurance for 8 years never had any bills or issues.
In the recent renewal sweep of people getting kicked off FamilyCare I got cut due to being just over the limit and moved to a GetCoveredNJ plan that started on June 1st 2024…. as my HorizonNjHealth coverage was good until May 31st 2024. So in August of 2024, I got a bill from the hospital for the services that were done, stating I owe them around $400. I called my old insurance and asked them about it… they said it should've been covered but due to them billing me so late they'd have to resubmit the claim, and to just disregard the bill for now.
They told me I would get a letter in the mail to determine coverage for the services within 30 days. So I've been waiting… Every other week seems I get a repeat of the bill from the hospital saying you owe us… I called them each time and I've spoken to 2 or 3 different people stating that they are resubmitting the claim. Then I've spoken to the former insurance company telling them about the letter and asking if they sent it yet. Nobody seems to be able to tell me that much.
Anyways, today I got a new bill stating I still owe them and that my account is tagged for "delinquency". Which obviously has me in a state of panic… what does that mean?
I called the hospital billing and the woman just stated that the last information she sees was they denied it and it went to a collections agency, and she gave me the number to them to see where in the process they were. I called that number and got the business office of the hospital that I visited… I asked the man on the phone what it means. So he said it's in "pre-collections", that they're resubmitting it to the old insurance and that it can take 15-30 days to get a letter from them with an explanation of benefits. So he told me to wait too…
Can anyone kind of explain why this is seeming to be digging a deeper hole day by day when it seems rather cut and dry in my mind? What does pre-collections mean vs collections? I have so much anxiety every time I get mail from the hospital. Please help me understand this!
submitted by /u/ToodleMcstrudel
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