Insurance & Medical Billing Services, Inc.

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer.  If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that if IMBS is willing to waive the Collection agency fees, and recalculate the amount owing to see if we really do owe a penny, I am willing to pay a small amount each month, if insurance is still pending, to show good faith and appear to not ignore their bill. I would also like to be informed whether bad things have been reported to national credit agencies as a result of this misunderstanding, and if so I would like to have that corrected. I also urge them to rethink the way they handle billing, we are not novices in medical billing, and we have never had a billing operation with the hair trigger of IMBS. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [redacted].  
Regards,
[redacted]

Thank you for sending this email to me. I apologize that I did not receive the first notice.  I will be sure to check my spam to see if it fell in there and was automatically archived.
I would like to start by saying that I apologize to [redacted] in advance for any...

inconvenience and stress this may have caused her with regards to her children's account with [redacted].  It is never our intention to upset a patient/parent/or guardian with an account at any of our offices.
At IMBS,  we have many different protocols that we follow for the practices we do business with.  With Pediatrics, their billing protocol is as follows:   Once the insurance has processed the claims and turns the responsibility of a balance for a copay/coinsurance/deductible or non-covered services to a patient,  a statement is generated to the guarantor of that account and is sent.  As a courtesy, another statement is generated after 30 days, again notifying the responsible party that they have a bill to pay.  Then a third statement to follow. If that account comes up on our list again, after the 3rd statement has gone out, it automatically generates  a notice to go to the collection agency who provides Pediatrics a cycle of dunning letters.   In that process, the responsible party to the bill has several weeks of opportunity to pay their account before it goes to a final stage.  If this does not get paid in that 10 week stage, it will go to a final notice status and will be processed as a collectible account with the agency.  
With this account,  the guarantor received several statements regarding balances on the account.  Unfortunately, if the balance is at a patient status, and it is not paid with in the 3 statement cycle, it is automatically turned to [redacted] for the next process which is what happened with this account.  [redacted] happened to call our office to pay her bill two days after we sent the notice to the agency.  I do not show any record of [redacted] calling IMBS until after we sent her account, thus generating a charge for this bill.  We have no way to know when an [redacted]/or other insurances will pay on these claims.  
We are responsible for following a protocol for [redacted].   With the thousands of accounts we process, it is almost impossible to hold out accounts that may or may not get paid by insurance after they have already processed the claim to the patients responsibility. It is unfortunate that [redacted] insurance makes it impossible for her to pay her balances in a timely manner and I will be sure that I note the account to allow her a few extra weeks to get this taken care of in the future, as we would much rather work with the responsibly parties then to send them to collections.
I hope that this has resolved this issue and that [redacted] understands that IMBS is held to a high standard with regards to following each practices unique billing cycle.   I am willing to waive this collection fee this time, $[redacted].  With that being said,  I would be happy to pass her concern on to the practice administrator to have him review this and see if there are any other options for patients/guarantors in this situation.  
Thank you for your inquiry and for allowing me to respond to this complaint.    [redacted] IMBS Owner
[redacted], IMBS owner
[redacted], [redacted] 
IMBS,Inc. 
[redacted] 
[redacted]

Review: IMBS has sent my bill to a collection agency, even though I paid what I thought I owed last month, and I was told if I made a payment every month, they wouldn't send my information to the collection agency. But after two days, I received a notice from the collection agency and now I have a bill from IMBS stating I need to pay a fee for their using the collection agency. I also don't know how they arrived at $36.50, I don't see that amount on this month's bill. I refuse to pay the $10.25 collection fee, I don't understand why I'm being charged a penny for a bill I paid In full in March, according to my records I can pay them I can pay $55.86, but will only do so once this problem has been resolved.Desired Settlement: I want IMBS to review their billing policy and make changes based on my (and most likely others) insurance payments. I have tried to explain until I am hoarse, but they don't seem to get it. The family insurance company, [redacted], has offered my husband's place of employment, a way to reduce their premium costs. This involves my husband's workplace paying for any medical charges up to a certain amount, I'm not sure how much it is, let's say $3,000 per family. They have been doing this for a couple of years, and what happens is this: The doctor's office sends a bill to [redacted], and it is rejected by them and sent on to what they are calling [redacted], and they pay what is owed. I then receive a statement saying how much they have paid and what balance I owe, hopefully that is reflected in the bill I receive from the doctor's office. I will then pay the 20% that is left from the 80% insurance covers. I do not know what is owed until I receive that statement, because that explains what the insurance writes off, and what the doctor's office offers to [redacted] members. Unfortunately, this process can take two, sometimes three billing cycles to come through. I have no control over this process, and I would appreciate a bit of consideration from IMBS. Other medical billing practices understand my situation and give me the time to wait until I know what is truly owed.

When I called IMBS last month to again sort out my bill, I spoke with [redacted], who made the ridiculous suggestion that I just pay the full amount and wait until they can send me a refund. I explained that I didn't have that much money to tie up, that they should realize my predicament and change their billing policy. She then told me that I must make some sort of payment each month so they don't feel I'm ignoring them, and I pointed out that they are receiving payment from my insurance company each month, so they aren't being ignored. Apparently that doesn't seem to count with them, so I said I would do that, figuring I usually have at least $20 owed each month, and will use that to keep them happy, while I wait to see what I'm actually owing.

I am very tired of dealing with IMBS, they don't listen to what I have to say, I think I have something worked out with them, then I find out they have called in a collection agency. I would like an apology as well as a review of their billing practices, and an understanding that I do pay my bills, I am not interested in something for nothing. My children are very ill just now, and I do not appreciate this extra stress I am being put under, it is so unnecessary.

Business

Response:

Thank you for sending this email to me. I apologize that I did not receive the first notice. I will be sure to check my spam to see if it fell in there and was automatically archived.

I would like to start by saying that I apologize to [redacted] in advance for any inconvenience and stress this may have caused her with regards to her children's account with [redacted]. It is never our intention to upset a patient/parent/or guardian with an account at any of our offices.

At IMBS, we have many different protocols that we follow for the practices we do business with. With Pediatrics, their billing protocol is as follows: Once the insurance has processed the claims and turns the responsibility of a balance for a copay/coinsurance/deductible or non-covered services to a patient, a statement is generated to the guarantor of that account and is sent. As a courtesy, another statement is generated after 30 days, again notifying the responsible party that they have a bill to pay. Then a third statement to follow. If that account comes up on our list again, after the 3rd statement has gone out, it automatically generates a notice to go to the collection agency who provides Pediatrics a cycle of dunning letters. In that process, the responsible party to the bill has several weeks of opportunity to pay their account before it goes to a final stage. If this does not get paid in that 10 week stage, it will go to a final notice status and will be processed as a collectible account with the agency.

With this account, the guarantor received several statements regarding balances on the account. Unfortunately, if the balance is at a patient status, and it is not paid with in the 3 statement cycle, it is automatically turned to [redacted] for the next process which is what happened with this account. [redacted] happened to call our office to pay her bill two days after we sent the notice to the agency. I do not show any record of [redacted] calling IMBS until after we sent her account, thus generating a charge for this bill. We have no way to know when an [redacted]/or other insurances will pay on these claims.

We are responsible for following a protocol for [redacted]. With the thousands of accounts we process, it is almost impossible to hold out accounts that may or may not get paid by insurance after they have already processed the claim to the patients responsibility. It is unfortunate that [redacted] insurance makes it impossible for her to pay her balances in a timely manner and I will be sure that I note the account to allow her a few extra weeks to get this taken care of in the future, as we would much rather work with the responsibly parties then to send them to collections.

I hope that this has resolved this issue and that [redacted] understands that IMBS is held to a high standard with regards to following each practices unique billing cycle. I am willing to waive this collection fee this time, $[redacted]. With that being said, I would be happy to pass her concern on to the practice administrator to have him review this and see if there are any other options for patients/guarantors in this situation.

Thank you for your inquiry and for allowing me to respond to this complaint. [redacted] IMBS Owner

[redacted], IMBS owner

[redacted], [redacted]

IMBS,Inc.

Consumer

Response:

[A default letter is provided here which indicates your acceptance of the business's offer. If you wish, you may update it before sending it.]

I have reviewed the offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that if IMBS is willing to waive the Collection agency fees, and recalculate the amount owing to see if we really do owe a penny, I am willing to pay a small amount each month, if insurance is still pending, to show good faith and appear to not ignore their bill. I would also like to be informed whether bad things have been reported to national credit agencies as a result of this misunderstanding, and if so I would like to have that corrected. I also urge them to rethink the way they handle billing, we are not novices in medical billing, and we have never had a billing operation with the hair trigger of IMBS. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. If the company does not perform as promised I can get back to you at: [redacted].

Regards,