Health Insurance

I worked in an insurance billing office for over 7 years. I'd like to think I know a bit about insurance, how it's billed, how to read bills, how it's processed, how to appeal. etc. I also know that for someone who didn't work in insurance for 7 years, health insurance can be very confusing-the bills, denials, discounts, copays, deductibles, test codes-all of it to a non-trained eye looks like gibberish. On top of all of that, if someone believes they have been billed incorrectly or their claim was processed incorrectly, etc, it is even harder to figure out how to appeal.  There are various numbers to call, a lot of transferring between departments, different letters or forms you might have to fill out-I understand why a lot of people don't bother and just pay the bills they get.

Fortunately for me, my experience in insurance gives me confidence when dealing with claims.  Also fortunately for me, I have never had a huge issue with my insurance that warranted me having to do anything other than pay the bills I received. I have been very thankful for this.

However, now I do have a problem with a bill (regarding Avery's emergency room visit). So Jared and I called UHC and were surprised to find that the first person we talked to was helpful, knew the answers to our questions and promptly gave us the address to send an appeal to. Not only that, but we didn't even have to fill out a form, send copies of bills, nothing. Just a letter. It seemed too easy. So today I was finally getting around to mailing out this letter and noticed that the address to send appeals to online is different than the address that the guy at UHC gave us; one was the appeals office in Atlanta, the other in Salt Lake City. Knowing how long insurance companies can take when you send the right information to the right place, I decided to just send the letter to both addresses. And then, just to be safe, I attached a copy of our insurance card and a copy of all three bills we are appealing. I guess I decided that sending just a letter probably really was too good to be true.

What I learned: Never trust insurance companies.