AllBetterCare Urgent Care Center

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered] Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: I did in fact advise Gretchen that I had already filed an initial appeal and was denied and that I was going to file a second appealObviously the account was not notated properly with all information that was given that dayAgain, just another example of the incompetence of this officeAnd in regards to the bill for 4/7, why would I call if I was assured that I could call back after the decision was made on my second appealI can only expect the pushback from the billing office after speaking with the non empathetic billing managerI will continue this complaint for the failure of this office to give proper informationI don't expect at this point for them to reverse the bill but I stand by my complaint about the incompetence of this officeYes, the service from the doctor was greatBut to be mislead at point in time during stress is wrong Regards, [redacted]

The patients mother did not call in to say she was appealing it a second time, we note our accounts very thoroughly in the office. She called in today to see when the first time she called in here was and did not say anything else just interesting, which was also noted in the account. The patient did have care in our facility with no complaints of the care that they received. Again it is the patients responsibility to know the insurance they were not given or inaccurate information we DO participate with *** insurance, the patient does not understand what needed to be done on her end. She received statements prior to her even calling us the first time to let us know she was appealing with the insurance so at that point the statement on 4-7-would have never gone out except to the collection agency, however she received additional time to contact us by the statement on 4-7-for which no phone call was made until they went to collections. Ultimately the patient is at fault for not knowing her insurance and not being in contact with our office timely which is what she stated how was she suppose to know that she needed to contact us every time. The bill will remain in the collection agency for them to handle for the full balance that was sent

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the responseIf no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
MsJ*** continues to admit fault yet her unprofessional continues to deflect the blame and responsibility of this situation away from her incompetence and unto myselfI understand that mistakes happen, however any competent business would take responsibility for their mistakes and not blame the customer and apparently also the United States postal service
Regards,
*** ***

Dear ***,I am responding to the comments made by *** ***I agreed with her that it was the companies fault for not updating the information into the computer, at the time of serviceAs I explained to *** *** our statements are done electronically and sent out by an outside companyWe never received her mail back as undeliverableHer mail also should have been forwarded to herThe postal system makes mistakes as well.As far as stating that we are incompetent is highly offensive and highly inaccurate Our main purpose here is to code the bills and to send out the claims to the insurances as well as posting the payments that are receivedYes she is accurate in stating we have a whole department for the purpose of solely billing that does not include registering patients at the time of the visit.The fact that we tried to call her at the number on her registration sheet, for which she states they don't check that number, is not our fault nor should that burden be put on usWe started making courtesy phone calls to patients before the fee was added as well as sent to collections, which we felt was the right thing to do for our patients, in order to try and correct any issues at that time such as not getting statementsHad we gotten ahold of them she would have had the opportunity to let us know that she indeed never got the statements at which point we would have gladly asked if the address was correct and this would have all been taken care of at the time of the phone callI feel that the fault is also on the patient to also give us accurate information if the phone number was not valid it should have not been put on the form as the first phone number to useIfeel that at the point of the phone call we went above our duty to try and get resolution before anything else transpiredAgain I agree that the address was our staffs fault, but could have been solved when we called the number on the registration sheet which I already providedI have contacted the collection company as well and they too left her a message on this home number with no responseThe collection agency told me that they have a specific company that corrects addresses within their system, which is why she got their letter we do not have that service within our system to do this.The collection fees are added before going to collections to give them an accurate balance at which time we also would have given the patient another weeks to make payment on her accountI feel that ample time was given in order to have her take care of her billIn a conversation that the collection agency had with the patient they also asked her if she received her EOB in the mail for which she replied "yes” again another fault of the patient.Our financial waiver also states that you are still responsible even if you don't receive the statementThe patient knew she had a balance from looking at her EOB, at which point she could have called also to inquire about why she had not received a bill in the mail from usI again feel that the patient was more at fault than our facility for not following thru on her endShe knew that they had received the services and has received good care from our facility.In looking at the accounts they have previously received statements at the right address for which they have not paid timely, they were assessed finance charges previously for which they paidI feel that we did do our part in trying to get this resolved in a timely mannerShould you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.Regards,Lisa J

Dear *** ***,I am responding to the complaint from *** ***, regarding her daughters visit to Allbettercare Urgent Care Center.As told mother on the phone, I understand her frustration about the address not being updated in the computer, but on 1-21-we called the phone number
listed on the registration form, which was ###-###-#### and left her a message regarding the balanceWe asked that someone call us back regarding this balance at that time, with no return phone callIn my conversation with the mother she said "Oh well that is our home number and we don't even use that number”I am not sure how Abettercare would know that we were not to use that numberOur policy is that if it is a courtesy call about a balance we call the home number first if that one is listed and leave a message to call us back at that timeCell phone calls are only used if that is the primary phone number listed on the registration form.Our Financial policy does state that a statement be mailed to the address on file, which was our mistake, however if the phone call would have been returned when we called her we would have found out that we had the wrong addressWe would have then explained the statement to herThe other issue was we never received her statements back as undeliverable, which would have also prompted us to make a phone call to correct the information in our SystemHad we gotten the statements back we would have again called the home number,The parent would have also gotten a copy of the explanation of benefits from the insurance company, which is the first step of communication telling them what their balance is as well, I have attached the registration form, the financial policy that they signed as well as the eob's from the insurance company.Since we turned this over to the collection Company, they charge us a percentage and tax for them to collect on the balance, which is why the collection fee standsI feel that We did our best to contact the patient about the balance by the phone call that was made to them.Should you need any other information on this please let me know.Thank youLisa JBilling Manager

[To assist us in bringing this matter to a close, you must give us a reason why you are rejecting the response. If no reason is received your complaint will be closed as Answered]
 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I did in fact advise Gretchen that I had already filed an initial appeal and was denied and that I was going to file a second appeal. Obviously the account was not notated properly with all information that was given that day. Again, just another example of the incompetence of this office. And in regards to the bill for 4/7, why would I call if I was assured that I could call back after the decision was made on my second appeal. I can only expect the pushback from the billing office after speaking with the non empathetic billing manager. I will continue this complaint for the failure of this office to give proper information. I don't expect at this point for them to reverse the bill but I stand by my complaint about the incompetence of this office. Yes, the service from the doctor was great. But to be mislead at point in time during stress is wrong. 
Regards,
[redacted]

Patient presented to Allbettercare Urgent Care Center on 1-22-17, presented her insurance card to front desk.  We do participate with [redacted] which is her carrier, but this one was an HMO for which they need a referral from their PCP to be seen.  The referrals are the responsibility of the...

patient to obtain.  The paperwork for which she is speaking of is to inform them of our policies within the office.  The second bulletin on the financial policy states "that it is your responsibility to obtain all necessary referrals in advance of being seen at our practice.  I have attached a copy for your viewing.  The proper thing for this patient to do was to file an appeal with her insurance company as well as request a referral from her PCP in order to possibly have a lower bill.  Her first statement went out on 2-10-17 with a due date on it of 2-25-17.  The patient did not contact our office until 3-20-17 to let us know that she was appealing her claim with her insurance which was already past the due date on the first billing cycle.  We then sent her another statement on 3-9-17 with big red lettering on it FINAL PAST DUE NOTICE due on 3-24-17, for which I believe prompted the call.  Our policy is to send two statements to the patients and then send them to an outside collection agency with a collection fee attached since we have to pay them a percentage of the monies they collect.  All of this is also stated in the financial policy that the patient signed.  We do offer that the patients get a copy of the financial policy to take home to read, because we understand they are concerned about getting better at the time, therefore do not read everything that they are signing.  With the amount of patients that we see we can't keep accounts open, we assume that they will contact us with results timely in order to avoid the collection process.  I believe that the process for our collection agency is it does not go to the credit bureaus until 90 days past due with them so I don't believe her credit is in jeopardy as of yet.  The only way she would have not gotten a bill for the whole amount from somewhere else is if she had a referral and followed the proper steps of her insurance plan, otherwise she would have had the same situation.  I am not why her insurance would tell her we billed it incorrectly we would have gotten a denial from them stating incorrect billing, at which time we would have refiled correctly.  I don't believe we have been negligent in anything that we did for this patient.