Valpo Client Got False Bill

S. O. S. – SPEAKING OF SENIORS

VALPO CLIENT GOT FALSE BILL

By Woodrow Wilcox

On February 23, 2018, I caught a medical service that sent a false bill to a client who lives in Valparaiso, Indiana.

            The bill was small.  But, it really irritated me that the medical service had been paid months earlier but never credited our client’s account.  No, this is not extremely rare.  In my 15 years of helping seniors with medical bill problems, I’ve noticed that this happens a lot.

            Usually, it is not the fault of the doctor, hospital, or medical service except that someone at their offices made a contract with a less than accurate and unprofessional medical billing service.

            In this case, the client got medical services on August 31, 2017.  His Medicare supplement insurance company paid the balance of the bill on September 29, 2017.  But, on January 31, 2018, the medical billing firm sent a bill to the client that demanded he pay the balance right now!  The bill was paid over four months before the payment demand letter was sent to our client.

            A few years ago, I helped about 50 of our clients fight a medical billing firm near Indianapolis which was regularly cashing checks from insurance companies but not crediting the accounts of our senior citizen clients.  I helped several of our clients file complaints with federal and state officials.  Plus, I got the cooperation of the medical service firm in Lake County that used the bad billing firm.  The honest doctor who led the medical firm made sure that all our wronged clients got a balance of zero on their bills.

             My question is this.  Why doesn’t the federal government prosecute bad medical billing firms for sending false or fraudulent bills through the mail to senior citizens who use Medicare?

Note: Woodrow Wilcox is the senior medical bill case worker at Senior Care Insurance Services in Merrillville, Indiana.  He has saved clients of that firm over two million dollars by fighting mistakes and fraud in the Medicare system.  He wrote the book SOLVING MEDICARE PROBLEM$ (www.SolvingMedicareProblems.com) and posts articles at www.WoodrowWilcox.com.