S
smale436
Guest
Having searched previous threads that were all unrelated to my situation, hopefully someone has some knowledge, insight, or previous Blue Cross experience.
While on an exercise in Florida in March, I had an injury during our time off requiring me, on advice of my superiors, to attend the local ER for stitches. The injury was such that our CWO said "just go" rather than wasting time trying to track people down. In any case the USN facility was not open. It seems many hospitals are not familiar or will not accept the Blue Cross card and the phone numbers on it, including the MED DENT line, were not answered at that time. Our deployed MO himself had a similar experience when he had to go to the same civilian hospital for an injury he sustained. After everything was done the hospital says "ok you can go we will send the bills in the mail for you to deal with at home."
I received two bills, one from the hospital and one from the agency the PA worked for, three weeks later and submitted them. Blue Cross staff accepted them to deal with. She said the procedure takes a long time and warned me not to be surprised if I receive mail from collections. Yesterday after returning home from 3 weeks away, I found two new copies of the bill in the mail saying "Seriously past due, delinquency review is being conducted". These are only the second I have received since the originals two months ago. I plan to go talk to the clerk on Tuesday as although these bills are dated three weeks ago the online websites show balances still owing. Having never experienced the process before I'm wondering if perhaps BC has the bills but is so backlogged they haven't initiated a file yet. The amount is less than $1500 so I have mulled over just paying online myself as I'm pretty paranoid about this screwing up my credit. Even if I have to eat the cost and chalk it up to a lesson learned the hard way. However at the same time, I wonder what would happen to someone in this situation for a much more serious medical condition. Thanks for any input.
While on an exercise in Florida in March, I had an injury during our time off requiring me, on advice of my superiors, to attend the local ER for stitches. The injury was such that our CWO said "just go" rather than wasting time trying to track people down. In any case the USN facility was not open. It seems many hospitals are not familiar or will not accept the Blue Cross card and the phone numbers on it, including the MED DENT line, were not answered at that time. Our deployed MO himself had a similar experience when he had to go to the same civilian hospital for an injury he sustained. After everything was done the hospital says "ok you can go we will send the bills in the mail for you to deal with at home."
I received two bills, one from the hospital and one from the agency the PA worked for, three weeks later and submitted them. Blue Cross staff accepted them to deal with. She said the procedure takes a long time and warned me not to be surprised if I receive mail from collections. Yesterday after returning home from 3 weeks away, I found two new copies of the bill in the mail saying "Seriously past due, delinquency review is being conducted". These are only the second I have received since the originals two months ago. I plan to go talk to the clerk on Tuesday as although these bills are dated three weeks ago the online websites show balances still owing. Having never experienced the process before I'm wondering if perhaps BC has the bills but is so backlogged they haven't initiated a file yet. The amount is less than $1500 so I have mulled over just paying online myself as I'm pretty paranoid about this screwing up my credit. Even if I have to eat the cost and chalk it up to a lesson learned the hard way. However at the same time, I wonder what would happen to someone in this situation for a much more serious medical condition. Thanks for any input.
