Hi Greg,

You are correct in that this bill should be paid based on the fact it is an emergency admission. Does the bill say this was filed with your insurance company? Have you contacted the doctors' billing office to determine if they have your insurance information and if so, have they filed the claim? If so, contact your insurance company to determine if they have received the bill. Sometimes bills and insurance information don't get together. Also, I believe you mentioned you have a PPO which means you would also have an out-of-network benefit. Still, this bill should be paid one way or the other.

I would start by contacting the doctors to see if they have your insurance information. Then ask if they filed the claim.

Let me know what you find out.

Hugs,

Lore

Lore you are correct, I do have a PPO.

What is interesting is that the original hopsital bill only had the hospital stay and the charge for the surgery room, but no doctors charges. Fortunately, the hospital that I was admitted to is an in network hospital, not that that should matter for an ER stay. Unfortunately, all of the doctors involved are billing my insurance company separtely from the hospital stay...and unfortunately, the angio doctor is not in network. The total doctor bill is for just under 19K...based on the out of network and resonable and customary changers, the insurance company only wants to cover ~9K, leaving me with the bill. I'll be calling them again tomorrow to fight that I did not choose the doctor during my hospital stay and to make sure that they realize that these charges are for the hospital stay.

Wish me luck,
Greg

Lore,

I spoke with my insurance company this morning, they are going to "reprocess" the bill and see what they can do....at least they are looking into it.

I can't complain about the health. Up till a week ago, I was actually feeling great. For a few weeks, I actually felt normal and healthy. Last week, I had a very small dizzy spell attack, unfortunately, these dizzy spell attacks usual end with a few days of bad fatigue. So, after a few days off work, I'm startign to feel better each day. Only 3 more months to the next round of follow up studies to see if the Plavix is helping.

The good news is that my angiogram showed that I have colateral vessels growing from other portions of the brain to help feed the bad areas. Doctors said this is promissing because if they actually manage to contect to the right area that I may not need the bypass surgery. (Please remember, that they determined that I don't have MM, but rather a bad restriction in the left MC1).

Thanks for the response,
Greg

Well, the battles continue....after a few weeks of constant battling between the doctors and the insurance company, I just filed an appeal with my insurance company to pay the final bill.

I stil find it interesting that even though you are admited to a hospital via the ER (in this case an in network hospital for my PPO) that you still end up with hospital bills.  I can only imagine how large of a bill I would be fighting if the actual did the EDAS procedure as Dr. C is not part of my insurance either....

Oh well, just need to vent.
Greg

Good News....after 4 months of fighting and appealing....the insurance finally agreed to cover the outstanding balance.....I'm psyched.

Thanks for all of the insight,
Greg