A few weeks ago, I received the invoice for a medical visit that took place in November 2024. The invoice mentions two items: the visit to the doctor and a "facility charge." The first one is fully covered by BCBS except for a $40 copay, while the other is only partially covered, requiring a payment of $210, after the deductible. The code for the second item is **99204, "HC Office Visit New, Level 4.**" According to various accredited bodies including the **American Medical Association:** 'Office or other outpatient visit for the evaluation and management of a new patient, which requires a medically appropriate history and/or examination and moderate level of medical decision making. When using time for code selection, 45-59 minutes of total time is spent on the date of the encounter.' None of this applies to the actual visit: the entire visit lasted under 10 minutes, and no special machinery or tools were used. The diagnosis was visually evaluated. In other words, it seems that the level of service was intentionally overstated. I only have proofs that the visit lasted within 10 minutes, but no proof of what happened inside because obviously recording is not allowed. I first tried contacting the billing office by email, but they only told me to speak with a representative. I called and asked for an explanation, but they just forwarded everything to the Team Lead, from whom I still haven't received any updates. Meanwhile, this morning, I received a message from Nationwide, a collector agency, as an attempt to collect the debt. What do you suggest I do? * Pay the charge to the collection agency and move on? If so, won't it affect my credit score? If I understand correctly, under $500 it shouldn't. Fortunately, I don't have money problems, it's the principle that bothers me. The health system is essentially a mafia, they can do whatever they want to and nobody cares. * File a complaint with the Office of the Illinois Attorney General? I live in IL. * Something else?"

Hey all I have to choose between some state medi-cal options for health insurance. The choices are community health, Molina healthcare and Blue shield healthcare. I've already dealt with Molina and I don't like them for my needs. So it's: Community Health vs. Blue shield. Context: My mother and I ( 55 F & 26 F) both suffer from certain health issues and will need specialists treatment, physical therapy and possibly even cardiology treatments (fingers crossed none of it is harmful). Some of these may even be genetic or hereditary, so appropriate testing and treatment are very important. We have either been diagnosed or have a probable diagnosis of some of these below 👇 Examples: •reynard's syndrome (a type of nerve condition) • Rheumatoid Arthritis • Wiggly Joints (causes wear of the joints and hyper mobility) Just to name a few. What I'm looking for is are there any miracle stories? Horror stories? Good experiences or bad? Which choice sounds the best for our needs of anyone can relate to us or has any experience looking for these things. TIA so much. P.S. I am still figuring out reddit so I may not be able to edit the post BUT I will reply in comments! Thank you!

Age: 40+ State: California Income: 0 (unemployed) tl;dr: I had some election snafu made by the COBRA management company where they just re-enrolled me in PPO which was $900/mo. I opted to go for a cheaper Kaiser option for $300/mo. Somehow I see when they fixed it, my PPO still shows covered and I have nothing regarding being enrolled in Kaiser... what should i do? Longer: So in my COBRA payment portal it shows I'm paying for Kaiser (cheaper) option and I have been paying for this coverage since the start of 2025. I haven't had to use it and I am just now needing to refill a prescription. Also, my old company switched up their insurance at the start of 2025, so even if I stayed on my PPO it would have changed providers. Anyways now that I need to refill a prescription I started looking through the docs I received and realized I never got any sort of Kaiser welcome packet but did receive a PPO insurance card, so I figured I would register on their site to see if it would let me. Surprisingly it did and the PPO shows I am covered. Now, normally I am one to do the right thing, but insurance is inherently evil... so part of me wants to go fill my RX using this PPO coverage and see what happens. Is this a bad idea? I definitely cant afford for them to go back and charge me an extra $600/mo. What do you all think?

hello! i know my issue isn't major, but I need help as I am desperate to solve this. Long story short, I had medical for the longest time and never had any issues until January when I was informed (when trying to make a dentist appointment) that I had a UMR blockage. I was confused but was told to call medical and get it resolved. I called them and they said to get in touch with UMR whcihc I tried but was beyond useless as they ask for a member ID which I stated multiple time I DONT HAVE, and after somehow bypassing the answering machine UMR tells me they have no records of me ever existing and to basically die in a ditch as they just hunged up on me. I explained this to medical, and they made me fill out a form to remove "other healthcare coverage," and it should be removed (I did this twice, btw). It in fact was not as I tried to make a dentist appointment again and same thing: "UMR blockage. please take this up with medical". I called medical again, and they gave me a case ID and told me to ask UMR for a "coverage termination letter," which I tried to do, but again, they told me, "We don't know you we can't do anything" and hung up on me. I explained this to Medical, and they filled out a form (the same one I did), and it should be resolved, yet I don't know if it actually be. Also, worth to mention one of the workers I spoke to told me that the UMR policy I was under was my uncles, whom I have had no contact since like five years ago and have no connection with at this point, the alleged policy began in 2023 so I don't understand how this even happened:C when I tried to report the fraud to medical they said "you cant report it here, report it to UMR and then we could try to remove the block because until then we cannot remove an active policy by law" But UMR has been beyond useless and I'm scared because I have a cavity and I know its not serious but I am afraid it could get worse Im just trying to see if anyone was in my same situation (which is very unlikely) or if I could get any recommendations on what to do because I don't know how to proceed anymore and this just pmo. Anyways thank you to whoever read this and pls help

My BCBS refused to pay any of my blood work. I was referred by my doctor to go to a specialist to get blood work done, over 6 months ago. Now I got this bill in the mail from Quest and found my EOB. They coded it 002 as “we do not cover experimental or investigational procedures” Ok…isn’t the entire point of blood work to investigate? Anyway, should I call my insurance or the specialist to appeal the bill? Any advice? This has never happened to me before. Thank you!

Got a quote from GEICO like around a week ago for 299 and month for full coverage, it’s the cheapest one I found compared to other insurance companies charging me 2x that at 18 I called GEICO and ran through the quote with him for a 2022 Hyundai Elantra limited he said it will be 304. That car ended up getting sold I found a new car I wanted clean title not a rental 7k miles 2024 Hyundai Elantra sel I got quoted $299 for it last week. Now I did another quote for the same car it’s all the same info I had last week and now it’s at $540 a month. I called and the GEICO guy said “rates can go up” and I highly doubt they go up $250 in a week. He did say my $299 quote sounded unrealistic and they whouldnt quote that when I literally have the saved quote on my GEICO app. I’m just wondering is this normal? And I can still buy the $299 a month quote right now since I did save it but I am scared they will raise my insurance prices to 550 a month after the 6 months. I do have screen shots of both quotes but just can’t add them. Should I buy the $300 a month quote since it’s the cheapest I found or will GEICO raise my rates after 6 months.

My spouse has a pretty poor driving record, we filed two claims last year on our insurance (USSA) and we just filed one today all of which he is at fault for. Last insurance claim we had was on December and it was a total loss. He also has a speeding ticket that he had to go to court for along. Our insurance bill is already $620 per month for two cars. My driving record is spotless, no speeding tickets or any tickets as well. We live in VA. I have a 2019 ford fusion and my 6 month premium is 1584. He has a 2019 Nissan rogue and his 6 month premium is 2241. We’re also both in our early 20’s. Would be be possible for him to have his own car insurance and would it be cheaper for the both of us? Right now his car is under my insurance and he’s also an insured driver under me. I also just installed a dash cam to his car a month ago for his protection but it seems like it’s the other drivers on the road that needs protection from him. I’ve already pleaded and begged with him to drive safer and drive defensively.

So long story short, we have been with a smaller insurance company for 5+ years with home and auto. Our insurance rates keep skyrocketing with no claims/accidents/ tickets etc. With our current company our home and auto is $7900 a year. (Two cars) I decided to talk with a broker and they presented me with an estimate from travelers for the EXACT same coverage for $4000 a year. I mean, almost half for the exact same coverage? I find it hard to believe. I was planning on switching if the savings was more than $1000 anyway, but I don’t want to start the process and they’re like oh sorry it’s actually $7500 not $4000 lol.

I wasted hours giving them information, more personal than any other company asked for, all the while them promising me several times that they are writing policies for my area. When it finally came to the moment of truth they admitted they could give me a quote from Bamboo and the Fair Plan!!! I could've gotten those quotes myself in ten minutes, but instead spent probably 2.5 hours registering family members and giving them SS numbers, confirming phone numbers, etc. I swear they are in the business of compiling personal information rather than providing insurance.

I got an email for my claim today saying my cat showed signs for diabetes at her exam in sept (I posted a pic of the exam notes on left and the email from embrace today on right). I don’t see anywhere it says she had diabetes. She was throwing up, but vet never said she showed signs of diabetes. My cat became diabetic late Jan, early Feb and is already in remission. Should I fight this (get a note from the vet)? Has anyone heard of successful stories?