Beware of Medical Bills or How I "Saved" $50

"Save a copy of the medical bills you have paid," I often say. "And keep your insurance company's Explanation of Benefits that they send you". 

So I receive a bill for co-pays...a bill for $65.  My co-pays for this doctor were $10 per visit and recently went up to $15 each.  As I looked at all the dates of this bill, I had that feeling:  the "I know I paid most of these already" feeling. But, although I never actually throw away my medical bills, I might as well, for all the hope I had of finding them.

But we live in an electronic age.  So I went to my bank website and looked for that payment.  I don't even remember how I found it but I did.  I had paid it last September (before the last $15 charge), and they had deposited it.  So I called the doctor's office to tell them...and they gave me credit for it.  It was all that simple.  If it hadn't been that simple I would have mailed them a printed copy of the electronic picture of my check.  It would have still been simple.

I just wanted to share this to remind you. Medical office billing is not infallible.  They get busy. They have new people to train. They have turnover.  They change from one medical billing software to another.  There are any number of reasons why they could make a simple mistake.  So it's up to us to keep an eye on those bills.

And if you can't find the paperwork you thought you had, don't be too quick to panic.  Maybe you have a record of that transaction some other place, in some other form.  It's always worth a look.