Their insurance won’t show us the bills?

[misschris]

Wife was in accident, other party at fault.

We sent 2/3 bills to them and the other bill was sent directly to the insurance company. The 2 bills totaled 1,000. They emailed back saying they were paying the 8,000 in medical bills… i can’t imagine the other bill was $7,000? We asked for the other bill and she said she would send it once we signed the release.
So I guess my question is, are bills “re-ran” WITHOUT going through insurance? Thanks and sorry if it doesn’t make sense lol

 

[yhjmkiop]

@misschris So is the problem that you just don’t have the third medical bill? Why can’t you just request a copy of it directly from the hospital or doctor?

 

[misschris]

@yhjmkiop Yes and we did. They said they sent it to the insurance company and won’t provide another copy. Just something seems so wrong…

 

[yhjmkiop]

@misschris That seems a little bit odd, but as long as all your medical bills are getting paid, I don’t see what the problem is.

 

[wibble]

@misschris Why does it matter if you aren't the one paying it or getting paid?

 

[misschris]

@wibble Downvote but don’t respond to a simple question, awesome.

It matters because i could take the 8,000, earn 5% in a HYSA and setup a monthly plan for the (real) amount owed over an extended amount of time and pay through a HSA tax free.

 

[yhjmkiop]

@misschris You don’t have any right to this option. The hospital is the one who is owed money for the services they provided, and the insurance company has agreed to pay for those services.

And the hospitals are always going to skip over you as the middle man in this situation, because they can and don’t want to risk you taking the payout and never paying them.

 

[misschris]

@yhjmkiop Appreciate the reply! Kind of makes sense, so since wife wasn’t at fault, they don’t run any of the bills through her insurance, thus why it’s 8,000. Had they run it through her insurance, the bills would have been considerably less? Is it common practice to not use the not-at-faults person health insurance? I’m not trying to be a dick, I really just don’t understand it all.

 

[yhjmkiop]

@misschris These areas are not my specialty, but I don’t believe that your health insurance is ever used with car accidents. I don’t know if it even can be as there might be specific exclusions and/or laws that clarify or that specify as much. If your health insurance was used though, that wouldn’t change anything about the end result.

What would end up happening instead is that the car insurance company would just reimburse your health insurer for any payments they made, pay the hospital the remaining amount that should’ve been owed, and then I believe your health insurance plan would “unwind” the claims as if they were never involved.

 

[misschris]

@wibble Are you my wife? Lol
Then they can send me the 8,000 and I’ll pay the bills myself? That DONT total 8,000

 

[hopeinnyc]

@misschris So a couple of things, many times as part of the intake especially at an er they have you sign an assignment of benefits. Especially in an auto accidents. Second some states allow ers to put a lien against any injury settlement requiring the insurance company to pay them directly. Thirdly as a business if you provide a service and there are 2 options for getting paid, one of them you have a negotiated discount and you'll get 40% of what you bill, and one where the insurance company pays 100%, you're going to send the bill the way that gets more money. Fourth, most health insurance policies specifically say that if it is the result of a motor vehicle accident they can require the auto insurance pay first.