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He went to an in-network emergency room. He still ended up with a $7,924 bill

• ajna91 7y ago
  > Kohan called for a nurse, who explained that he would need jaw surgery that night. In the meantime, he tried to check whether the hospital — Dell Seton Medical Center — was in his insurance network. > “I was on my iPhone lying there with a broken jaw, and I go on the Humana website and see the hospital listed,” Kohan says. “So I figured, okay, I should be good.” Except he wasn’t: While the emergency room where Kohan was seen was in his insurance network, the oral surgeon who worked in that ER was not. That’s how Kohan ended up with a $7,924 bill from the oral surgeon that his health plan declined. > Kohan called his insurance plan, which assured him that nothing was wrong — that the doctor had likely coded the visit wrong and would just need to resubmit the claim. > Kohan’s doctor did resubmit the claim, and increased the price of the surgery by about $2,300, billing records show. > I reached out to the doctor who saw Kohan, an oral surgeon named... > himself did not respond to my request for an interview. But the day after Canizales and I spoke, Kohan said she called him — and let him know that the entire $7,924.13 charge was being dropped. > I also reached out to Dell Seton hospital to ask why it contracts with an oral surgeon who does not accept any medical insurance. > The hospital declined an interview but provided a statement noting that this is a common practice across the country.