Hospital and Insurance issue

So I had a major surgery earlier in May of this year where my gall bladder was removed. After about a month or so I got a bill from the hospital saying that I owe a copay of $400.

I was continuously checking my Empire BCBS login to see if all the hospital claims had been finalized and there was one in particular which kept on getting denied for 2 times no matter what the hospital was doing. I called their billing and I even called the insurance to determine what was going on. The hospital on the phone said that all the billing has been finalized (I asked them to double/triple check) and they confirmed that everything was all settled with the insurance and I was left with a $400 copay. So I paid it. I had walked into the ER at about 7AM because I had sharp pains in the abdominal area overnight. They immediately started me on pain killers and did the blood work, they sent me up for an Ultrasound which showed I had gall-stones. All this took about a few hours (but not more than 4). By mid-day, they said they needed to operate due to the infection (WBC was elevated). I had surgery later that day (around 6-7PM under general anesthesia) and when I woke I was take directly to an inpatient setting (semi-private, 2 patients per room). I was discharged the following evening after my vitals had stabilized.

The problem is that the way hospital represented the claims, I owe a $400 copay. As per the insurance, if I were admitted as inpatient within 24 hours of being in the ER, the copay doesn't apply. According to the insurance, the claims make it seem like operating procedure was performed in an ER setting (which is why the EOB shows the ER copay which is $400). We had a 3-way conf call between the Insurance, Hospital billing and myself and the insurance clearly identified instructed to the hospital to resubmit the claims in a specific way because I should not be charged a copay due to the nature of the emergency.

I ended up paying the $400 because I thought I had an ER copay that I needed to pay. But the insurance has re-iterated to me and documented this in a reference case that this should not have happened. I've been trying to get the refund from the hospital and the billing representative seem most incompetent. Last call they said the hospital will not be abiding be able to refund the payment. Should I just file a credit card chargeback ? and provide this as evidence ? I don't think I am going to get the money back here by playing by the book.

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Any advice?

submitted by /u/cchhat01
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