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I was under the impression that all I needed to pay was the $3,000 non professional fee to my surgeon that insurance won't cover. I have had an additonal bill after another from my surgeon, her assistant, the hospital and others. I'm not a happy camper when this is now over $7,000 that I paid out of pocket AND I had insurance! They paid for 80% of it. The extra costs are killing me! I was banded in June and still just 2 weeks ago recieved another bill. Anyone else experience this? Wouldn't the surgeon's office be nice enough to warn you? I specifically asked the surgeon and my insurance about this type of thing and was told not to worry. :angry:

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I was under the impression that all I needed to pay was the $3,000 non professional fee to my surgeon that insurance won't cover. I have had an additonal bill after another from my surgeon, her assistant, the hospital and others. I'm not a happy camper when this is now over $7,000 that I paid out of pocket AND I had insurance! They paid for 80% of it. The extra costs are killing me! I was banded in June and still just 2 weeks ago recieved another bill. Anyone else experience this? Wouldn't the surgeon's office be nice enough to warn you? I specifically asked the surgeon and my insurance about this type of thing and was told not to worry. :angry:

I did not have this happen to me but something does not seem quite right. I would talk to someone in the office about this, usually the assistance get paid under the doctors fees and so on. Contact your insurance company too and make sure the surgeons office is not double billing.

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I agree, call your doctor's office and talk to the billing department. I keep getting a $2,000 bill from my surgeon and every time i call they say it's an error and to ignore it and that it'll be wiped out... then a month later I get another one laugh.gif

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I've been a medical biller for over 10 years. First thing. like the others said call your Ins. Co. and see what exactly you are responsible for. If your surgeon participates with your plan, then they should not be billing you outside of your 20%. If you are getting bills from any others..assistants, anesthesiologist, etc.. you should not have to pay for that (outside of your 20%). You did not choose them, so they should not bill if if something wasnt covered. good luck!

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Both the insurance and surgeon assures me its all legit. I have been fighting but to no avail :-(

It's really frustrating when I specifically asked these questions before surgery and was assured I was good to go. Insurance blames the surgeon, surgeon blames the insurance.

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Just curious as to what a 3000 dollar professional fee is? I had to pay 300 dollars to cover the nutritionist, fitness and mental health professionals for a year. Other than that, I paid $220 to my surgeon and $1100 to the hospital which was my 20%. Keep pursuing this until someone gives you a real answer, not blaming someone else.

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    • BeanitoDiego

      Oh yeah, something I wanted to rant about, a billing dispute that cropped up 3 months ago.
      Surgery was in August of 2023. A bill shows up for over $7,000 in January. WTF? I asks myself. I know that I jumped through all of the insurance hoops and verified this and triple checked that, as did the surgeon's office. All was set, and I paid all of the known costs before surgery.
      A looong story short, is that an assistant surgeon that was in the process of accepting money from my insurance company touched me while I was under anesthesia. That is what the bill was for. But hey, guess what? Some federal legislation was enacted last year to help patients out when they cannot consent to being touched by someone out of their insurance network. These types of bills fall under something called, "surprise billing," and you don't have to put up with it.
      https://www.cms.gov/nosurprises
      I had to make a lot of phone calls to both the surgeon's office and the insurance company and explain my rights and what the maximum out of pocket costs were that I could be liable for. Also had to remind them that it isn't my place to be taking care of all of this and that I was going to escalate things if they could not play nice with one another.
      Quick ending is that I don't have to pay that $7,000+. Advocate, advocate, advocate for yourself no matter how long it takes and learn more about this law if you are ever hit with a surprise bill.
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