Monday, November 30, 2009

Message From Accent

I thought my jaw-surgery adventure was over. After all, I had my jaws broken last summer. And though the healing process took several weeks, by the time my braces were removed, I celebrated the finale by posting goofy pictures on this blog.

The End....right?

Not exactly. One random morning while having breakfast, Sean asked if I had opened my mail. I hadn't, so he picked up some letters while I continued to eat. There were the usual credit card solicitations, which I generally ignore. But there was an unfamiliar letter in the pile. The return address stated the company was called Accent. "What's this?," Sean asked. I had no idea, so I opened it with curiosity. It was a bill from Anthem, my former insurance company, that came to me via Accent, a bill-collecting agency. There wasn't a letter to explain the charge. It simply stated that Anthem over-covered me last year for my surgery, and that I am to pay them $4,575 for the difference in their clerical mistake.

What a shocking, unpleasant surprise. Must I state the obvious in that I always pay my bills on time? Why am I being hounded by a debt collecting agency? How can an insurance company cover a person and then renege on their obligations a year later?

There are so many questions. I had 30 days to respond to this claim. I called Accent, but didn't hear from them, so I wrote a letter rejecting the validity of their claim and sent it through certified mail.

This is a blundering mistake on their part, and I will not be paying for their errors. I am not sure how this process will develop, but it's certainly not the end of my jaw-surgery adventure.

8 comments:

stripes types said...

Wow! That's really mean -- I hope that you can get it sorted out and in your favour too!!

A similar thing happened to my mother - she was getting payments for some work-related support (I think it was maternity leave or something) through the government and then she told them that she was going back to work, therefore didn't need the payments, but they kept sending them to her. A few years later they then sent her the bill for all the overpayments.

Like you, she had to pay for their mistake.

Jessyca said...

Is there any legal association you can refer to regarding this issue before it rolls big. I would like to know how to cope with it IF one day I myself enounter this problem.

Anyway, Buaya Jess drop by here first time for a bite ^^ Have a nice day yo~

Unknown said...

We had the same problem with Accent. What ended up happening for you????

wiltonwinrow said...

That was mean. You should not pay the clerical error. It is a result of their negligence. I'm just happy that my wife was able to handle my bills well with my Miami Florida dentists. I have several procedures with them for the past three years, and I'm happy to not experience such problems. My wife will have some veneers, Miami dentists are in charge, so I don't have to worry.

Cindy said...

OMG, i so know what you are going through! I also have Anthem B/C B/S, and I also had double jaw surgery. It took a year of appeals to get them to approve my surgery, then 2 weeks after my surgery I recieved a letter from them stating that they were not going to pay for my surgery. I have the letter where they approved me to have the surgery and agreed to pay for it. They also refused to pay Dynasplint for the device I need for therepy to rebuild the strength in my jaw. In short, this is the worse insurance company i have ever had to deal with. My dr and his staff also tell me they have never had any problems with any of the other insurance companies with this surgery when it's clear the surgery is needed. Good luck with your battle, just thought i'd share my experience

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