Horrible billing office
I will start by saying that I have had no problems with the medical care at this group. My issue is with the billing office. I have been absolutely floored by the complete lack of competence of the billing office. A year and a half after I moved out of New Jersey and had switched to a different healthcare provider, I received a bill from a service 21 months prior for about $1,800. I will acknowledge that the legal statute of limitations for collecting medical debt in NJ is 6 years - that does not make it reasonable in my opinion and this is not a one off circumstance for Summit Health. That being said, with it being so long after the date of service, I had to figure out how to get into my old insurance portal and get in contact with my former insurance company. When I did, they advised that they adjusted the bill to about $535 (as per the contracted legally allowed amount for the services that I received) and that it was paid in full. I got an EOB. The amount that Summit Health billed me for was the difference between what the insurance company adjusted and paid and what they had originally charged (again, outside of the contracted allowed amount). I took this back to Summit Health. The first person I spoke with on the phone said that insurance denied the claim because it wasn’t a covered service. I pointed out that I literally had an EOB that adjusted the bill and paid for it, so obviously that wasn’t correct. She gave me the run around and when I didn’t accept it, she said she would escalate it and someone would call me back within 2 business days. Nobody called me back. I called back again and spoke with someone else. She couldn’t figure out why I was being charged, so she said she would escalate it and have somebody call me back. Nobody called me back. I called back and spoke with a third person who said he couldn’t do anything and somebody would call me back. Mind you, these were not quick conversations each time. I spent multiple hours during my work day on the phone going back and forth with the insurance company (I was somehow forced to be the liaison between the two entities despite knowing the least about the contract and not having access to the system and whatever they were missing to remove the bill????). After about couple of weeks of continuously chasing Summit Health, I finally got someone who was able to remove the charge. This was the same billing office line that I had been repeatedly calling, so I imagine that all of the reps that I spoke with previously had power to do something and just didn’t. She said she would do whatever needed to be done to remove the bill, and that she would call me back before noon 2 days later to confirm that it had been done. She never called me back. When I called in that afternoon, I spoke with someone who confirmed that the bill removed, but he said you now have another bill of about $61 or something. Are you kidding me? He said that a separate service had been denied by the insurance company. So I went back to my insurance company and they said yes it was denied but we believe it was incorrectly coded by Summit Health’s billing office. Back I go. I start another process of going back and forth between Summit Health and my insurance company. I inform Summit Health that I’m working on this with insurance - do not send my bill to collections. A few weeks later, I find out that they sent my bill to collections!!!! When I gave somebody a mouthful on this, she said it’s automatically sent to collections after a certain amount of time. Why was I not informed of that? Also, there has to be a way to prevent that when you KNOW somebody is working with their insurance company on the claim issue. Ultimately, I won, and paid nothing. I have never been so irate in my life. Summit Health’s billing office is completely unprofessional and unwilling to help. I fought tooth and nail to not be charged by covered and ALREADY PAID FOR SERVICES removed from my bill. This is not the first time I am aware of them billing people a very long time after the date of service. My mom has had several experiences with that as well (those bills, to my knowledge, were correct). I recommend avoiding this practice to protect yourself from circumstances like this.