 I Fired My Acupuncturist Last Week
While I feel that acupuncture has been helping and that I'm a big fan of acupuncture in general, I quit going to the acupuncture clinic I was going to last week.
The main problem was in their billing process, which was taking advantage of the insurance situation, causing me a lot of stress and being what I felt was counterproductive to my treatment.
Basically, what they would do, is charge me in full for the treatment, then bill my insurance company (they weren't in my network, and it wasn't required of them to do that) but list themselves as the payee. Then they would "credit" my account when they got the check from the insurance company. They would even be surprised that the insurance company would send checks to them instead of to me!
After the initial 12 sessions, my insurance company wanted a medical report to review and decide if they would authorize further treatments. There was a lot of problems getting the medical report to the insurance company, and then the insurance company had a delay in getting their response back to myself and the clinic. The insurance company did authorize more treatments, and will make readjustments to the already-filed claims that they previously denied coverage for.
All during this the clinic was charging me in full for all these treatments - around $600 a month, which I can't afford and I told them so repeatedly that the whole point of health insurance is to make healthcare more affordable.
Even though my insurance company will provide for extra treatment, I feel that it's too late - dealing with this particular clinic, even though I'm getting excellent treatment, has been so stressful for me. I'm literally really stressed financially over this whole thing.
So I can see a couple problems with this whole process:
I don't mind paying for medical treatment, but I feel like the process used by this clinic is unfair to the patient - I feel like they should be more like a regular specialist's office where they bill the insurance company and then bill the patient for what the insurance doesn't cover.
I realize insurance companies aren't extremely willing to pay for an unorthodox treatment, but that the red tape I've had to deal with is typical of some other insurance problems I've had in the past.
I feel the acupuncture clinic's billing staff should have been more mindful of what I was telling them about my ability to pay, instead of calling me after the fact to say, "I'm sorry you feel that way, come back!" It's like they really didn't understand the concept that people have to work on a budget and not everyone can just give up $600 a month for healthcare. But I also understand their position, that they want to get paid and negotiating that payment from insurance companies can be troublesome because of the nature of their service.
I'd like to find another acupuncture clinic, and I've asked around so we'll see. Fortunately my cycles were short enough that if I keep up working out and eating right hopefully I might be able to keep them on a 28-day length.
I stopped by another acupuncture clinic the other day, one that was in my healthcare network, but when I tried to explain my extra benefits, the woman insisted that I pay in full because she didn't know if the insurance would pay. I don't know if it was a communication problem or just an insistance that people pay for their healthcare upfront and in full these days.
I've never had a problem with dentists, eye doctors, OBGYNS, or anyone else with my insurance, or with the whole "bill the insurance first and the patient afterward" process.
Any thoughts? Ideas?
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All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. That is the talisman, the formula, the command of right about face which turns us from failure to success. -- Anonymous
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