This is why when I have been forced to pay prior to receiving services I use a credit card. I want to be able to dispute the charges. I anticipate time frame problems; credit card companies don't like getting disputes on charges that are several months old. I'll deal with that if I ever have to fight on this issue again. Still, it gives me some leverage to be able to tell the hospital "Now that you've charged that card, be advised that I will not hesitate to dispute that charge if y'all screw up the insurance."... So I had to go back to them, and try and get about 2000 dollars back.
It took 4 phone calls, I got told everything from, I have no idea what you're talking about, to, you must be mistaken that's not how insurance works.
I finally had to go down to the hospital show them the billing, walk them through how I was billed by who when. And they finally figured out I knew what I was talking about before they cut me a check.
I once visited a doctor while on a business trip. I had injured my foot moving some equipment. As an accidental injury, insurance paid everything. There should be no co-pay.
The front office staff put the wrong codes on the paperwork and demanded a $20 co-pay. We got on a conference call with the insurance company, figured out the problem, and the office manager refused to change anything. They threatened to call the police if I didn't pay. I paid with a credit card and disputed it that evening.
The most insane, surreal thing about that visit? Because the coding on the paperwork that reached the doctor did not say anything about treatment for an injury, he didn't even look at the foot. In order to have something to bill the insurance company for, he launched into a 10-minute canned speech about the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases then told his nurse to provide me the number of a specialist in town for the foot.
I was gobsmacked. I came there for an injured foot and, out of nowhere, he just started rattling off a memorized speech on a totally different topic.
Insurance weirdness spawns treatment insanity.