Who To Call When There Is An Error On Your Medical Claim
What do you do if you feel your health insurance company has processed your claim incorrectly and they refuse to get it adjusted? If you are facing a situation like this, an insurance law attorney may be able to help.
What Are Insurance Law Attorneys?
First of all, insurance law attorneys are experts in the field of insurance and how insurance claims are handled. They work with a variety of insurance types including automobile, homeowners, and health insurance. If the insurance company denies a claim or refuses to pay, insurance law attorneys may be able to help.
Claim Errors
Unfortunately, it is more common than it should be that health insurance companies make errors when it comes to processing claims. In fact according to the American Medical Association, one in five medical claims submitted to health insurance companies gets processed incorrectly. What exactly does this mean for you? It means when you get a bill from a medical provider, you shouldn't automatically assume it's correct and that someone probably owes you money.
How Insurance Law Attorneys Can Help
If you are certain you are getting billed incorrectly due to a claims processing error, you should consult with an insurance law attorney. The first thing an attorney who specializes in insurance law can help you with is knowing what your rights are. One such right includes having your insurance company settle your claim within a restricted amount of time.
If you have talked to your insurance company and have been unable to make progress with them, having an attorney on the phone will get their attention. It is important to note that even though you are asking your attorney to talk to your health insurance company, your health information is protected by HIPAA. This means the health insurance company cannot give out specific details about your claim without your written or verbal permission.
Once an attorney is able to acquire all the documentation regarding your medical claim, the attorney should be able to effectively communicate with your health insurance company to reprocess your claim. In most instances, attorneys who help settle medical claims do so on a contingent fee basis. This means the attorney gets paid a certain percentage of any money they help to recover.
It is crucial to contact an insurance law attorney as soon as possible. By not getting health insurance errors resolved in a timely manner, the hospital that is billing you in error can still turn you over to collections which will have a negative effect on your credit.
Talk to experts like Freedman, Wagner, Tabakman & Weiss for more information.