PCP says I owe them – EOB says otherwise

I saw my PCP for a visit and had lab work done in office at the same time last February (so one year ago now). I paid my copay that day for each service. A few months later I got a bill stating that the office had billed my insurance but my insurance (Cigna) stated I was not covered at that time and that I owed them $400 for services.

However I had already received an EOB from Cigna roughly two weeks after my visit showing that the services were billed appropriately and that I did not owe the provider any additional money. The EOB does show that Cigna paid $0 for several of the services however the EOB clearly states that I am not allowed to be charged for these by the provider due to their contractual agreements with Cigna. I’ve seen this happen a lot on my EOBs and it’s never been an issue.

Well I argued back and forth over this for months with my PCP’s billing department and sent them copies of the EOB. They admitted they made an error and that they would resubmit the claim to Cigna. I asked why would they need to resubmit? I have the EOB showing the claim went through. I got no response.

Shortly after that I got notification in the mail that the account had been sent to a collections agency. I reached out to the billing office again livid about this. They assured me they would rescind the collections account but that they were still trying to “resubmit the claim.” Again no response when I asked why the claim was being resubmitted.

Now the balance has been sent to collections again. I also am now unable to make an appointment with my PCP because my account is in collections and as a result I have been out of my thyroid medication for over a month now. I have reached out to billing and customer service with the practice strongly requesting that these issues be fixed ASAP.

What other recourse do I have to get any of this fixed? Do I reach out to Cigna and see if they can do anything on their end? I’m extremely frustrated because I did not know until getting the latest collections letter that the matter was not resolved and that I wouldn’t be able to schedule an appointment so I could refill my medication. I have begun searching for a new PCP but no one has appointments open until May/June and I can’t go that long without my thyroid medication.