Jeff Epton
3735 17th Place NE
Washington, DC 20018
June 30, 2016
Laboratory Corporation of America
PO Box 2240
Burlington, North Carolina 27216-2240
Re: Invoice # 00356327
To whom it may concern,
Over the last nine months or so, my son, Brendan Epton (17
years old at this time), has periodically received collection letters from your
subsidiary, LCA Collections. Being a minor, Brendan is not actually legally
liable for a medical debt. His parents, Marrianne McMullen and I, who reside at
the above address with Brendan, are, in fact, the liable parties.
In light of the above information, it seems that if you
continue to feel the need to send dunning letters in regard to the outstanding
bill, you should address those letters to Marrianne and I.
But, perhaps
before you do so, you should make an honest effort to identify and address the
obstacles that might be delaying payment for your services. May I submit the
following as suggestions and/or information that might guide how you proceed?
First, though I have no actual knowledge of why Blue Cross
Blue Shield of North Carolina refused to pay the bill you submitted, I have
been told that they needed a formal affirmation that Brendan was, indeed, a
qualified dependent on Marrianne’s BCBS insurance policy.
If that is the case, and we have received notification from
either LCA or BCBS that they wanted us to speak up and affirm, then it is
definitely our bad for failing to do so. However, if neither you nor BCBS
followed up by asking us to make such an affirmation, or repeated the request
as often as might have been necessary, than one or both of you was certainly being sloppy about
the whole matter, if not negligent.
Still, as it happens, some months ago I did contact NC NCBS
and made that affirmation. And so the matter was settled. Not.
Another two or so months after my long, long, long phone
conversation with BCBS (punctuated, as it was, by repeated and demoralizing
hold messages), Brendan (still a minor), again, began receiving collection
letters from LCA Collections. Again, I contacted NC BCBS to ask what difficulties
might be keeping them from processing your bill.
I can’t help asking what you were doing meanwhile to address
the problem, other than, perhaps, preparing to send out another of your
stunningly effective collection letters. But I digress.
In any case, NC BCBS told me that they did not have a
physician’s authorization for the tests on record. I will not outline precisely
what followed, as it is described in detail in the message reprinted below that
I just minutes ago e-mailed to NC BCBS, but it should suffice to say that I
stayed on the line for even longer this time while the NC BCBS representative
contacted Brendan’s doctor (Laura Hofmann, (202) 797-4950) to obtain that
authorization, retroactively.
That done, I assumed that when and if we again heard from
LCA, it would be to pay whatever balance remained after BCBS finally processed
your bill.
But, much to my surprise, Brendan (still a minor) recently
received yet one more collection letter from you. You must be so proud.
Finally, I will add that the LCA facility where the tests
were conducted is based in Dr. Hofmann’s
office! How hard could it be for LCA and NC BCBS to figure out how to put this
matter to rest?
Sorry. I know it doesn’t help to shout. Below is the message
that I sent to North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield today.
Please don’t get the idea that we are tired of dealing with
you guys. As we all know, into every life a little rain must fall.
Nevertheless, you people at Laboratory Corporation of America (and Blue Cross
Blue Shield) ought to improve your business practices, particularly billing,
bill processing and collections. After
all, you are in business to get paid and, if you don’t do better than you are
currently doing, you ain’t ever gonna get paid.
Best,
Jeff Epton
Postscript
My message today (verbatim), to North Carolina Blue Cross
Blue Shield:
“The member ID is actually for Marrianne McMullen, Brendan's mother and the
person to whom I am married. We live in Washington, DC and are enrolled in the
Federal Employee Program.
“I am writing in regard to a bill for laboratory tests
ordered by Brendan's doctor, Laura Hofmann (202) 797-4950) in the fall of last
year. The bill was submitted for payment to the NC Blue Cross Blue Shield
(BCBS) by the Laboratory Corporation of America (LCA), apparently because LCA
is an NC-based company.
“The bill has never been paid or, to my knowledge, properly
processed. After receiving collection notices from LCA for Brendan (a minor,
who cannot be legally liable for the debt), I contacted BCBS to ask why the
bill had not been paid. I was told that was because there was some NC
regulation that required that Brendan be identified annually as a qualified
dependent on the insurance plan. When I spoke to an NC BCBS representative and
formally claimed Brendan as a dependent, I was told that the bill would be
processed.
“When some time later, LCA resumed sending debt collection
letters, I again spoke with a representative from NC BCBS who told me that
there was no record of a doctor ordering the tests for Brendan. After I
explained my frustration with the process to that point (some six months or so
after the tests were conducted), the NC BCBS representative kept me on the line
while she contacted Dr. Hofman's office directly to complete the record. At the
conclusion of that call, the representative told me that everything had been
taken care of and that the bill would be processed.
“Now, some two months later, I sit here with another
collection letter sent by LCA to Brendan, who is still a minor. I am writing
you now because I have absolutely no desire to spend another minute, let alone
an hour (which is how long I was on the phone last time) with an NC BCBS
representative.
“It strikes me that this whole situation is no fault of
anyone in our family, but a consequence of an insurance company's failure to
conduct its ordinary business in an appropriate fashion, but what do I know?”
