I know I have a few folk in the Australian health industry on the flist, so I'm hoping desperately that somebody can give me some advice on a stupid, ridiculous hospital billing saga
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Thanks for the offer. I already got pretty far down this path, let me tell you where I'm at:
I spoke to somebody in the hospital, who I suspect spoke far too freely with me, who explained how they check with the health fund and what happened in my case. She said that they have no record of somebody at the hospital checking my coverage. Medibank also has no record of the hospital checking with them (although from what I understand, the hospital didn't have to contact Medibank, they had some database they look up on what plans cover what procedures). She said that somebody probably just looked at my plan name and thought I was covered. Somebody from the hospital definitely called me and said they'd checked my coverage and I was covered, and I was expecting that call because they'd told me all that would happen when I made the appointment. However they have no record of who made the call to me, or when it was made. There's a note on my account that says "No excess", but that doesn't have a date or person attached. Clearly, though, things followed from that check, because on the day I wasn't asked to pay anything, and because my bills got sent to Medibank, not me.
What does IFC stand for? Is that the financial disclosure thing? I suppose right now I'm trying to figure out if the hospital is obliged to stick with what they told me about the costs I would have to pay, or if they're allowed to go, "oh well, we got it wrong about your insurance, now give us the money". If they didn't have to get it right, I should probably stop wasting my own time and effort on fighting this, and just pay the bill.
I spoke to somebody in the hospital, who I suspect spoke far too freely with me, who explained how they check with the health fund and what happened in my case. She said that they have no record of somebody at the hospital checking my coverage. Medibank also has no record of the hospital checking with them (although from what I understand, the hospital didn't have to contact Medibank, they had some database they look up on what plans cover what procedures). She said that somebody probably just looked at my plan name and thought I was covered. Somebody from the hospital definitely called me and said they'd checked my coverage and I was covered, and I was expecting that call because they'd told me all that would happen when I made the appointment. However they have no record of who made the call to me, or when it was made. There's a note on my account that says "No excess", but that doesn't have a date or person attached. Clearly, though, things followed from that check, because on the day I wasn't asked to pay anything, and because my bills got sent to Medibank, not me.
What does IFC stand for? Is that the financial disclosure thing? I suppose right now I'm trying to figure out if the hospital is obliged to stick with what they told me about the costs I would have to pay, or if they're allowed to go, "oh well, we got it wrong about your insurance, now give us the money". If they didn't have to get it right, I should probably stop wasting my own time and effort on fighting this, and just pay the bill.
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