After three and one half hours on the phone with Medicare, my parental units got the answers they wanted. It appears the old man, ‘Paw’, has not followed up with the two bills for a blood works done on 10/10/2007 and 01/12/2007. The date on the two bills was on 02/15/2007 and 03/19/2007, respectively.
My parental units had spoken to Medicare on 02/25/2007 to find out the same thing today (03/25/2007) that they needed a ‘Letter of Necessity’ from the doctor who ordered the blood work in the first place. An ‘Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN)’ was signed by the patient as part of an FYI procedure for the patient to know that Medicare may not cover the orders.
But since this order (on a monthly basis) is supposed to help treat the medical conditions of ‘Maw’, we needed to go back her doctor and obtain the proper documentations for Medicare to pay 100% coverage. It’s already 02:30PM and they twosome had finished eating their lunch.
The point is that old timers (like my parental units) do not always understand what is going on with paperwork. I believe (as part of the process of elimination for those evolutionists) the ‘smart’ ones follow up and know how to resolve their problems and not blame others for their troubles (like what I have been observing with the negative campaigning for presidency of the Democratic Party).
So the system is really set up for those who know what is going on and for those who cannot afford to pay the remaining balance would end up begin reported to the collection agency. As a result, the billing department has been kind enough to give the patient 75% on the bill and a 30-day extension until the doctor provides Medicare proof that the blood work is medically necessary.
Copyright © 2008 by Fluffy von der Flynn. All rights reserved.
Leave a Reply