In July 2012, Myke had to have some tests done because he was getting headaches. One of the tests he needed was an MRI. We went to Signet Diagnostic Imaging Services in Sunrise for the MRI. Since that time, for the last 5 months, I have spent countless hours trying to resolve what should be a simple billing issue. Instead, I have wasted time and been frustrated because Signet's MRI billing department is in India and no one there is qualified or smart enough to fix this billing issue. There is no one in the United States to speak with to attempt to fix the problem.
Signet Diagnostic Imaging billed his health insurance, which is United Health. United Health paid Signet whatever their contracted rate amount was very quickly in July or August of last year. Our patient responsibility is a $100 co pay. However, instead of getting billed for $100, in August, we began receiving invoices for over $1200. There was a message on the invoice saying that Myke's insurance term had ended June 30, 2012. I called United Health to find out that this was because the premium was not paid. Since I had paid the premium on time and was cashed well ahead of the due date, I then had to contact ADP since they are the ones we were making the COBRA payment to. They had incorrectly applied his insurance premium payment to the wrong account. They quickly fixed the error and contacted United Health, who reinstated his insurance status retroactively to reflect that he was fully insured at the time of service in July.
I called Signet's billing department to tell them that all they had to do was re-submit the bill to United Health and they would get paid. The guy on the other end of the line told me that they could not re-submit it. After much arguing back and forth, he finally told me that they were paid by United Health, however after receiving the payment, they received a letter from United Health saying that the claim was paid in error and Signet needed to send United Health the payment back. So I called United Health to tell them that Signet was requesting a letter stating that they could keep the payment. United Health then tells me that they do not write a letter, but that I should tell Signet that they can keep the money and that they would send out an Explanation of Benefits document to them and that would let them know that they could keep the money. Unfortunately, that was not good enough for Signet's billing department in India, so after dealing with Signet's rude and unprofessional billing department insisting that I had to pay the full $1200+ and cutting me off, not letting me speak, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Of course, there is no supervisor available, so one was supposed to call me back. Several days later, I received a call from the supervisor, who was just as rude and unprofessional, telling me that we were responsible for the entire $1200+ bill.
I then called United Health back and spoke to someone else who gave me the same B.S. about they don't send a letter out. I explained that I thought that was the only thing that would fix our problem, and I asked to speak to a supervisor there. The supervisor at United Health told me the same thing. I don't understand what aversion they have to writing a damn letter, but they sent out another EOB to Signet's billing department.
That was at the end of November 2012, and I had thought that worked since I didn't hear from Signet Diagnostic Imaging Services since then - until two days ago, when I got a call from a collections company, expecting immediate payment of $1200+!!! Now this is about to affect Myke's credit - and it has already been paid, and we are only supposed to be responsible for $100 - which I am not paying until I get confirmation that the billing problem is resolved - which I do not think we should even owe anymore since they put me through such stress and aggravation and wasted hours and hours of my time.
I called United Health again, and this time I spoke with someone there who confirmed, once again, that they don't send a letter, but she offered to call Signet's billing department for me to tell them that they can keep the payment and that our responsibility was only $100, and that they need to recall the bill from collections.
I called the collections company back to let them know this, however of course, they only care about getting the bill paid, regardless of whether it is valid or not, so only wanted me to pay them, didn't even want a fax of the EOB to show that United Health showed that the claim was paid.
Are you frustrated yet? I sure am!!!
A few hours later, I got a call back from the rep at United Health, who was exasperated. She said she totally understood what I meant about Signet's billing department in India. She said they didn't have a clue what was going on. And on top of that, now another problem arose. The Signet Diagnostic Imaging Services incompetent billing department told her that they WANTED to send the payment back because it was "not enough" and who was going to pay the rest of the bill since United Health only paid $200+ whatever dollars - the total for their contracted rate. She said she futilely tried to explain to him that the contracted rate was what they get paid and the patient responsibility was only $100. Since he would not give up trying to get paid the full $1200+ amount, she told me that she now has to turn it over to the division that handles contract rate disputes and they have to get involved and contact Signet to attempt to resolve the issue.
In the mean time, she is sending me out a new EOB statement that I now have to send along with w written dispute letter to the collection agency. More time wasted!
So why am I taking more time to write a blog post about all this? I hope to get the word out that if you need an MRI, Cat Scan, CT Scan, Pet Scan or any other diagnostic imaging services, do NOT go to Signet Diagnostic Imaging Services of South Florida unless you want a billing nightmare of your own!
Signet SUCKS!!!!
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