Today I received an invoice from the lab company. I was shocked at the high price. Also I received a notice from my insurance company about my copay amount. I was way higher than I thought.
Before I made an appointment, I confirmed with my insurance company that the lab test is covered by the insurance company 100% as the preventive care. Also, when I made an appointment with the clinic, I mentioned about that.
It was a simple human error. Somebody who was responsible for inputting coding made a mistake. It should be fixed easily. All I need to do is to make a couple of phone calls.
However, making a phone call is a tough task for me. I went through many bad experiences on miscommunication over the phone, especially with the staff members at the clinics and hospitals.
I took ourage and picked up my phone. I called my insurance company. The customer service representative who picked up my phone sounded like a young woman. Luckily enough for me, from the way she spoke, I could tell she was smart and quick to grasp the situation.
First off, we started with the invoice from the lab company. She made a phone call to the lab company and set a 3-way talk so that I could hear their conversation. It turned out the invoice was simply a mistake. Somebody messed up the claim number and ended up to charge me a wrong bill. It solved quickly.
Then, we tacked with the clinic. This was not easy.
Again, the insurance company operator called the clinic and set a 3-way talk including me. The first receptionist who picked up the phone put us on hold. After having us to wait for long, she transferred us to other department. There, nobody could solve the issue. Then we were transferred to somewhere again. Same thing happened. We had to wait on-hold for long for somebody pick up the phone. The last person we spoke dealt with the coding, but she didn’t have an authority to change it. All she could do is to send an email to her supervisor who has the authority to change the code. She is out of the office for the day. This was it that we could do for the day.
By then, we spent almost one hour for this matter. I was exhausted.
At least I was thankful for this operator for her kindness and smartness to support me. Without her support I might have given up to deal with this matter. I almost lost my temper, but she never did. She stayed calm from the begging to the end.
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The following day I received a phone call from a young woman. She was the supervisor for the coding at the clinic. She politely apologized for their error. She told me to rest assured that she sent out the correct the coding to my insurance company.
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To think back about this matter, maybe it happened to me so that I could practice on the problem-solving and the better communication skill.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 