Submitting Out of Network Medical Insurance Claims

If you are trying to submit medical insurance claims'telling them where to find the claim".
for a provider who is out of network with theThe funny thing was that we received a letter that
insurance carrier you will most likely run into someday with the claim being returned stating that the
problems. For example, if you need to call on thetype of bill was not a valid type of bill code. Isn't it
claim you may find that the insurance carrier will notamazing that we were told such different information
even speak to you since you are out of network.when we called? Well our type of bill certainly was
This makes following up on the claim difficult.valid, but it turns out that Blue Cross just requires a
Some wonder why you would want to follow up ondifferent type of bill. Now we've resubmitted the
a claim that is out of network. Sometimes it is notclaim with the new type of bill and you can bet we
the provider's choice to be out of network. Orwill keep calling until payment is made.
possibly they are trying to help the patient out. InThere are other problems that you can run into
our case, it was an inpatient drug rehab that justwhen submitting out of network claims. In some
opened, still applying to be in network, but acceptedcases patients have no out of network benefits
the patient as an insurance patient. They had uswhich means no payment will be made on the
submit the claim but they are waiting for theservices. Usually out of network claims are paid
payment.directly to the patient and this may not be a problem
We submitted the claim and then called 2 weeksfor you if you are just verifying if the claim was paid.
later to be advised the claim wasn't on file. We thenIf you are waiting for the payment then it can be
faxed them the claim and called again 1 week later.helpful to know when the patient is receiving the
Now we were told the claim was received and wasmoney.
in process. Fortunately we didn't rest on thatFor those of us who are responsible for submitting
information. We called again 1 week later to find thatout of network claims for providers we just have to
the claim was 'lost'. Now I couldn't figure out how itbe diligent in following up on the claims. It is not an
could be lost since we were told it was received andeasy task but if you just stay on top of it, it can be
in process, but this new person was now telling medone.
that she was sending it back for processing and