Over more than a decade I have on occasion needed a medical scan of some kind for an injury or health condition. Simon Imaging has always been a local business with professional technicians. However, it seems that sometime over the past few years, they have released their billing duties to a shady third party called physician services. This billing group has no care or concern regarding patients. We are a source of income to be milked as far as possible. I don't know if they profile patients based on age or where they live, but something is going on. I had a scan at Simon med in July. All my previous insurance billings over the past 15 or so years happened in a timely and professional manor. Not this one. The difference: physicians services was now involved. My insurance company told them within about 10 days that I had to pay for the scan out of my deductible, but also told them what they were allowed to charge me. Three months later, I received a bill from physicians billing which charged me 3 times more than what my insurance said they could charge
. When I called in Oct. immediately after receiving the bill, I was told to disregard it and they would refill. My insurance rejected the refill saying that they had already responded to this bill 3 months prior and assumed I would pay the lower amount and calculated that against my deductible. When my insurance included this information in their December benefits update, I was surprised as I had not received any new bill from Simon med or Physicians Billing Service. So I called and Physicians Billing denied ever hearing even once from my insurance company. I needed to prove the communication happened or pay the inflated bill. I contacted the insurance company and immediately got copies of their communications with Physicians Services for both the initial and second claim. At that point, they finally agreed that the lower amount was the actual amount that was due.
They changed the total due in their database and sent confirmation emails. It was agreed that a new bill would be sent to us with the correct amount. The next day their computer called my home demanding the overdue outstanding balance. The only good news was that it was for the loer amount. They claimed that this lower amount reflected their claim with my insurance company who had not ever responded--so who from their company wrote the emails to my insurance company less than 24 hours prior? It was due NOW! I called them and expressed my frustration with their treatment of me. I was denied a supervisor and hung up on. I called back again using once again the number from my bill. They left my on hold for several minutes and gave me a more senior troubleshooter who seemed to not care about my story while implying that it was clear to her that either I didn't want to pay the bill or couldn't afford it.
I was both insulted and amused as I told her that she had no idea what bills I paid every month. Then she met my challenge. She offered me five percent off if I played it all today. (Makes you wonder what her year end bonus is on bill collections.) So I told her, "fine let's do it." She put me through to the auto pay area. I hung up on the computer pay woman when she confirmed a higher pay amount. (Tisk, tisk for still trying to cheat me.) I called back and was asked if I wanted to pay my amount. I said yes, and got the discounted amount previously quoted by the representative in the earlier call. I paid it. Let's hope that I am left alone after this. Shame on Physicians Billing for repeatedly lying about communications with my insurance company and the treating me like a dead beat. Horrible!
SimonMed Imaging Reviews
Over more than a decade I have on occasion needed a medical scan of some kind for an injury or health condition. Simon Imaging has always been a local business with professional technicians. However, it seems that sometime over the past few years, they have released their billing duties to a shady third party called physician services. This billing group has no care or concern regarding patients. We are a source of income to be milked as far as possible. I don't know if they profile patients based on age or where they live, but something is going on. I had a scan at Simon med in July. All my previous insurance billings over the past 15 or so years happened in a timely and professional manor. Not this one. The difference: physicians services was now involved. My insurance company told them within about 10 days that I had to pay for the scan out of my deductible, but also told them what they were allowed to charge me. Three months later, I received a bill from physicians billing which charged me 3 times more than what my insurance said they could charge
. When I called in Oct. immediately after receiving the bill, I was told to disregard it and they would refill. My insurance rejected the refill saying that they had already responded to this bill 3 months prior and assumed I would pay the lower amount and calculated that against my deductible. When my insurance included this information in their December benefits update, I was surprised as I had not received any new bill from Simon med or Physicians Billing Service. So I called and Physicians Billing denied ever hearing even once from my insurance company. I needed to prove the communication happened or pay the inflated bill. I contacted the insurance company and immediately got copies of their communications with Physicians Services for both the initial and second claim. At that point, they finally agreed that the lower amount was the actual amount that was due.
They changed the total due in their database and sent confirmation emails. It was agreed that a new bill would be sent to us with the correct amount. The next day their computer called my home demanding the overdue outstanding balance. The only good news was that it was for the loer amount. They claimed that this lower amount reflected their claim with my insurance company who had not ever responded--so who from their company wrote the emails to my insurance company less than 24 hours prior? It was due NOW! I called them and expressed my frustration with their treatment of me. I was denied a supervisor and hung up on. I called back again using once again the number from my bill. They left my on hold for several minutes and gave me a more senior troubleshooter who seemed to not care about my story while implying that it was clear to her that either I didn't want to pay the bill or couldn't afford it.
I was both insulted and amused as I told her that she had no idea what bills I paid every month. Then she met my challenge. She offered me five percent off if I played it all today. (Makes you wonder what her year end bonus is on bill collections.) So I told her, "fine let's do it." She put me through to the auto pay area. I hung up on the computer pay woman when she confirmed a higher pay amount. (Tisk, tisk for still trying to cheat me.) I called back and was asked if I wanted to pay my amount. I said yes, and got the discounted amount previously quoted by the representative in the earlier call. I paid it. Let's hope that I am left alone after this. Shame on Physicians Billing for repeatedly lying about communications with my insurance company and the treating me like a dead beat. Horrible!