One thing we have seen with multiple providers…they onlymsend an EOB if they are not paying in full. This is a change from the past when we got,them all the time regardless of how much was being covered.
I can access info online… but I don’t get EOBs in the mail anymore if the claim is paid in full.
We always get EOB, showing what was paid and what we MAY be asked to pay. This happens even when we aren’t expected to pay anything.
YMMV! @HImom
We have several different health insurance providers. If they are paying every penny…we don’t get an EOB. I’m not saying everyone has this…but we do…Anthem, Cigna, and Aetna.
We don’t get an EOB when the insurer pays the full bill.
We’ve actually noticed that since ACA we have a harder time with insurers denying things they should pay for. Among other times, this happened when DH had a screening colonoscopy. We started getting bills from the hospital, anesthesiologist and gastroenterologist. When DH called the insurance co, they admitted it was all coded correctly, but they still took another 6 weeks to pay. I agree that insurers hope they’re dealing with uninformed customers who won’t question denials and any bills they get from providers.
Yes @HImom. If there is an amount you may be expected to pay…then your insurance company did NOT pay in full.
We do NOT get an EOB anymore when the insirance company pays in full…in other words…we have NO balance we may be expected to pay.
There is no balance for nearly all of H’s claims, since he’s Medicare + private insurance but we always get EOB showing NO balance.
I’ve been getting EOB showing no balance for me since I hit out of pocket max in June too!
Yeah, its crazy what hospitals try and charge before insurance gets involved. When I got a simple upper endoscopy a few years ago, the Bluecross EOB that came in the mail mentioned charges of $12,000. My jaw hit the floor… Of course that was before insurance. The final charge to me was $100. @-)
I don’t get any EOBs in the mail…everything is online (I do get email notifications when one is ready).
Our EOB info us also available online but we like having paper copies, as we are traditionalists that way. It is amazing to see the range of prices charged and final amounts paid!
Regarding getting hit with unexpected hospital bills even when you do everything in your power to stay in network, that’s because of anesthesiologists, pathologists, radiologists, and other out-of-network providers working at an in-network facility, providers you don’t see and don’t choose. Whether you’re subject to this completely unfair practice depends on where you live, another crazy and patient-hostile aspect of our insurance system. California just passed a law prohibiting balance billing by hospitals, but if you live elsewhere, your mileage will almost certainly vary, and you might want to (try to) find out. The two parties at war about this are, of course, insurance companies and providers’ lobbies. Both agree that the patient shouldn’t get stuck with the bill, but both also agree that they don’t want to get stuck with the bill. The patient is the one without any power, so guess who does get stuck.
Before I had surgery in March, I called my doctor about this; I was concerned about the anesthesiologist balance-billing me. They gave me the name of the anesthesiology group my surgeon uses. I called them, and they assured me that I was covered. I also called my insurance company to verify, and they confirmed. But I have been told things in the past by both providers and insurance companies which turned out not to be true regarding coverage, so I held my breath until I got the final bill.