Get help with your bills from a specialist

By Jeanne Sather When I was first in cancer treatment, I frequently was reduced to tears by my medical bills and insurance statements. The first piece of mail that made me cry was an "explanation of benefits" from my insurance company denying payment for a $1,700 bill. I knew it was an error, but I also knew it was going to take phone calls and letters to the insurance company and the health-care provider to straighten it out. Who had the energy? Not me. I was doing weekly chemotherapy. As the paper continued to flood in, I was befuddled by bills from providers I'd never heard of, charges that didn't add up, errors in the calculation of my deductibles, and--always-- codes and cryptic explanations that didn�t make sense. My all-time favorite is: "Payment reduced per sanctioning policy." What's a sanctioning policy? My health insurance company was sanctioning me for spending too much of its money? Later, as a trickle became a flood, I just stuck them in a red file folder, unopened, that grew and grew until it was three inches thick. Finding helpI found help in the Yellow Pages under "Insurance Claims Processing - Medical." Kelly came to my house and didn't flinch at the stack of unopened bills."Some people give me mounds of envelopes in laundry baskets," she said. "Some people have not dealt with the medical bills for two or three years." First, she sorted out the mess, matching statements from providers with explanations of benefits from my insurance company. She threw away duplicates, filled out forms, and sent in bills that hadn't yet been submitted to insurance. Then, she checked for errors. She found several in the calculation of deductibles, and asked my insurance company to correct them and recalculate payments to the doctors and the hospital. She saved me $630 on that first visit. Kelly called or wrote to all of my health-care providers and had a contact at each one. She tracked everything, with spreadsheets, and followed up regularly by phone or fax. "I let them know we're working on it and that we're not deadbeats," she says. If a claim was denied, she didn't stop working. "I don't accept the first denial," she says. "I question it on the phone and if I'm not satisfied I fax a note or letter asking for a response in writing." She would then give me a list of bills to pay, complete with addressed, stamped envelopes. Once we got the first mess sorted out, it took her only two to three hours a month, and she always came to my house. Kelly moved to Atlanta a couple of years ago, and now I handle the medical bills. I don�t cry so easily anymore, and I�m much more cynical about hospitals and insurance companies. It's still not easy. There are always mistakes, and long waits on the phone, and stalemates when both sides (provider and insurance company) refuse to take the first move to sort out a problem. You have to laugh. I once was transferred 15 times on the phone when I called my cancer center to ask a question about a bill. Fifteen times! How do I know? I counted, and took detailed notes, and then I blogged about it, which is a great way to work off the stress of dealing with medical bills. Read Jeanne's five tips on how to deal with medical bills. Jeanne Sather is an outspoken advocate for the cancer patient's point of view and writes at The Assertive Cancer Patient.  Read full story >