Health insurance on the road
I am sure this has been discussed before so if so I apologize for asking again. Neither my wife or I are old enough to get medicare so we purchase our plan here in our home state of CT. We generally s...
Forum Discussion
Our young family has a HDHP, and we have for the past 10 years...
Normally a visit to the emergency walk-in clinic is $125-150, billed to insurance so it goes towards our deductible. No problem, $125 is worth it to be seen on a weekend if needed.
This year we have a new Cigna policy. Needed walk-in clinic 2 weekends in a row on a Sunday. OK, no problem we've used them once or twice a year for the past 10 years...
Get the 2 bills and Cigna is charging us $250 per visit. For just an office visit!! That's $500 total for 2 cases of bronchitis. I paid less at the pediatric walk-in clinic when my son broke his collar bone. That was an office visit, x ray and a sling for $150. I just said I'd pay cash when I heard how inexpensive it would be. I'm glad I didn't have it billed to Cigna. I'd probably be stuck with $1,000!!
The large corp. clinic billing dept. will not negotiate bill. I even called the office and asked what my visit would cost if I was a self-pay and I was quoted $125.
But Cigna DOUBLED the cost and now I'm stuck with it. At least I now know to say I don't have insurance, and just pay cash, if I ever need the convenience of the walk-in clinic on a weekend...
Billing depts. used to negotiate with the customer in order to get paid immediately. No more... I guess they'd rather wait for their money than get 3/4 of it right now. They are getting $10 per month, screw 'em... it will cost them more to send me monthly paper bills than it costs me to send in $10 via auto pay LOL.
Normally a visit to the emergency walk-in clinic is $125-150, billed to insurance so it goes towards our deductible. No problem, $125 is worth it to be seen on a weekend if needed.
This year we have a new Cigna policy. Needed walk-in clinic 2 weekends in a row on a Sunday. OK, no problem we've used them once or twice a year for the past 10 years...
Get the 2 bills and Cigna is charging us $250 per visit. For just an office visit!! That's $500 total for 2 cases of bronchitis. I paid less at the pediatric walk-in clinic when my son broke his collar bone. That was an office visit, x ray and a sling for $150. I just said I'd pay cash when I heard how inexpensive it would be. I'm glad I didn't have it billed to Cigna. I'd probably be stuck with $1,000!!
The large corp. clinic billing dept. will not negotiate bill. I even called the office and asked what my visit would cost if I was a self-pay and I was quoted $125.
But Cigna DOUBLED the cost and now I'm stuck with it. At least I now know to say I don't have insurance, and just pay cash, if I ever need the convenience of the walk-in clinic on a weekend...
Billing depts. used to negotiate with the customer in order to get paid immediately. No more... I guess they'd rather wait for their money than get 3/4 of it right now. They are getting $10 per month, screw 'em... it will cost them more to send me monthly paper bills than it costs me to send in $10 via auto pay LOL.
