You Can't Make This Stuff Up

[LennyB]

Back in November I went in for an eye exam for new prescription glasses. Been to this place before so they had all my records and it is a mile from my office. They recently had a management change and were not yet setup to take insurance. Nearest place that took my insurance and had appointments available was over an hour away. Figured I'd deal with it as my insurance only covers the exam and the cheapest pair of glasses.

So afterwards I decided to submit the bill to my insurance company online figuring I had nothing to loose. Now two and a half months later I get two letters in the mail today. First letter is them denying the claim, no big surprise. Second letter is a check for $0.00. 

No wonder insurance rates are so high, they are wasting money sending out redundant checks.😲

[1930fordpickup]

I will bite my tongue on this hit tooic for me. I dont need to be banned or put in time out.  You are not wrong Lenny. 

[rattle can man]

I once got a telephone bill for 3 cents. It cost them 15 cents to mail it.

[slusher]

For some reason I’m not shocked and my insurance didn’t pay for my last exam…

[Mike 1017]

My wife has been in the insurance industry for over 30 years. A lot of the problems are that people don't read or understand their policies. Number one rule is to buy insurance from a AAA rated insurance company Prudential, State Farm, Farmers, etc. The old adage You Get What You Pay for certainty applies to Insurance companies Most states have a Department of Insurance which you can send your complaint to. The Department of Insurance, by law must send the complaint to the Insurance company and they must respond to the Department and to the person who submitted the complaint.

I too hate insurance companies  

Good luck 

Mike

[imarriedawitch]

15 hours ago, rattle can man said:

I once got a telephone bill for 3 cents. It cost them 15 cents to mail it.

Makes as much sense as still using pennies when it costs over 3 cents to make one penny.

[espo]

4 hours ago, Mike 1017 said:

My wife has been in the insurance industry for over 30 years. A lot of the problems are that people don't read or understand their policies. Number one rule is to buy insurance from a AAA rated insurance company Prudential, State Farm, Farmers, etc. The old adage You Get What You Pay for certainty applies to Insurance companies Most states have a Department of Insurance which you can send your complaint to. The Department of Insurance, by law must send the complaint to the Insurance company and they must respond to the Department and to the person who submitted the complaint.

I too hate insurance companies  

Good luck 

Mike

Another issue has to do with the doctor's office and how they submit and code the bill to the insurance company. There was one time when I found out, a couple of years later, that the doctor's office manager would submit the claim and then bill us saying they wouldn't cover whatever we had done. The office manager was using the wrong codes on purpose so the insurance wouldn't pay the claim and then would bill us at the regular rate instead of the reduced payment that the insurance would have paid.  

[Mike 1017]

18 hours ago, espo said:

Another issue has to do with the doctor's office and how they submit and code the bill to the insurance company. There was one time when I found out, a couple of years later, that the doctor's office manager would submit the claim and then bill us saying they wouldn't cover whatever we had done. The office manager was using the wrong codes on purpose so the insurance wouldn't pay the claim and then would bill us at the regular rate instead of the reduced payment that the insurance would have paid.  

This happened to our family too. My wife being in the Insurance business caught this wrong coding on the first bill. She has helped numerous family and friends to navigate the insurance mine field.

Mike

[Mike 1017]

No one in our community is a Dummy

Insurance for Dummies: Hungelmann, Jack: 9780470464687: Amazon.com: Books

[espo]

1 hour ago, Mike 1017 said:

This happened to our family too. My wife being in the Insurance business caught this wrong coding on the first bill. She has helped numerous family and friends to navigate the insurance mine field.

Mike

I got in touch with our supplemental insurance company and the lady I spoke to alerted us to the errors in coding. She suggested that some office managers or whoever was doing the coding were putting the wrong codes so that the insurance wouldn't pay the claim and the doctor's office could then bill the patient at the higher rate that what the insurance companies would pay. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Insurance in general seems like a good idea, ideally protecting people and entities from possibly catastrophic expenses resulting from unforeseen events beyond their control.

But like many things, where there's an opportunity to exploit a loophole for gain, there's never any shortage of those who will try.

It's also true that, for the most part, an insurance company's primary business mission is to pay out as little as possible, while taking in as much as possible.

And the house always wins.

 

[johnyrotten]

Around six years ago I had a lengthy hospital stay, including 20 days i.c.u. I was mistakenly billed as if I did not not have insurance,  and those numbers were sickening. Luckily we were able to straighten everything out, but the difference between under or uninsured and insured is night and day

[Mike C]

My girlfriend gets these dividend checks from GE, they are usually for amounts like around a nickel, maybe 15 cents. It sure costs more for processing them then the actual amount.

[SSNJim]

On 2/3/2025 at 8:10 PM, rattle can man said:

I once got a telephone bill for 3 cents. It cost them 15 cents to mail it.

It gets worse. I worked at a former Bell cell phone subsidiary in the early 2000's. They told us it cost about $5.00 for them to generate and mail one simple bill regardless of the billed amount. 

Edited February 8 by SSNJim

[Mike C]

Here's something I forgot about that happens to me, not anything bad but:

Years ago I lived in Griffin Ga. I moved away when I found a new job in S. FL. That was about 2005. I was able to temporarily move into my parent's house until I found my own place. So I used my parent's address as my forwarding address. So a year after that I received a refund check of $50 from the electric utility in Griffin, GA. Nice, I thought that would be the end of it. But they still keep sending me refund checks to my parent's house which my mom just sends them to me. I recently got a $25 check from them a few months ago. Nothing to complain about but it sure is strange.

[Old Buckaroo]

Mike was the electric company a Coop ?  We've gotten similar checks from power companies after we have moved on.

[Mike C]

7 minutes ago, Old Buckaroo said:

Mike was the electric company a Coop ?  We've gotten similar checks from power companies after we have moved on.

I really don't know.