I've had a rough last couple months and no time spend up here during that time but now am trying to catch up & post about this mess....here goes.
This company - whatever they happen to be calling themselves this week - Philips, Biotel Heart, Cardionet, Lifewatch, BioTelemetry, etc etc of which I cannot even keep track are (1) totally incompetent when it comes to billing and/or (2) crooks. And after what I've been through and doing some extensive research on the 'net believe it to be a combination of both.
But don't take my word for it. Just try googling around with terms like Bitoel complaints, Cardionet complaints, customer reviews for Biotelemetry etc etc. They have a pattern of majorly overcharging for their "service", screwing up bills, taking years to even bill people (like most of us in this thread after the changeover from Roche), using a particular collection agency as a billing service, just on and on and on.
Oh, and that just this past December they were forced to pay a $44 million dollar fine for overcharging Medicare, the VA, and violating something called the "false claims" act, in regards to a cardiac monitoring device/service. No wonder their billing dept is such a mess and trying to get them on the phone is no ez task, they are snowed under a $44 million fine!!!
My intent with writing this is to both warn anyone thinking of using this company for INR testing (or anything at all) to RUN AWAY AS QUICK AS YOU CAN and find some other means of testing, AND to see if anyone else has similar problems with them that I am having, how they dealt with it, and are their any government agencies I can turn to for help etc?
This probably is too confusing to make sense but basically to add to the saga I posted about above (how all of their submissions starting in about 2022 to my healthcare company Anthem BC/BS were denied for something relating to "procedure codes" in my EOBs), finally after about 4 months of waiting for them to get back to me (they were supposed to get back to me within 5-10 business days after a conference call with them & BC/BS took place on March 1st), I only got a non-answer of "our procedure codes are fine" with no solutions offered as to what then IS wrong.
Instead they expect me to pay their bills bypassing my insurance coverage taking the $880 and applying some type of arbitrary $800 discount - thus costing me $80/month - which amounts to between roughly 8 and EIGHTY times more than what it would cost me had they billed properly through BC/BS (through BC in 2021 when their billing "worked" I was charged either $11.76 per month for months where I had not reached my deductible yet and only $1.18 for months after my deductible was met and my portion owed was 10% - although I was not actually sent a bill myself for any of those 2021 charges until MAY of THIS YEAR!!!!!!!!).
Something happened at this company in 2022 post one of their many name changes/reorganizations/buyouts/mergers/something which has totally screwed up how their bills are being processed by my insurer Anthem BlueCross/BlueShield. Because all was well in 2021 yet for 2022 things are a mess and they are overcharging me bypassing my insurance, and even threatening me with collections, trying now to get about 2 years worth of $80 monthly charges to the tune of about $2000 (although so far they have only billed me for 3 out of those 18 months worth)!!!
Finally about 2-3 weeks ago I believe I have figured out what the billing problem is, which myself and a BC/BS rep told them about yet have still got nowhere....
Basically we have been able to figure out that their inflated $880 monthly charges for INR monitoring WORKED in 2021 with my insurance because they submitted those bills properly to my insurance which was Anthem BC/BS of Georgia. BC/BS then knocked that $880 down by their contracted rate for that service by $868.24 leaving me a total due of $11.76 or even less at $1.18 for the months I was past my deductible.
But the claims that were denied (and continue to be denied) by BC/BS have been submitted to a DIFFERENT arm of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, something called "Blue Shield of California". Of which as I understand it (and I am not a healthcare billing specialist by any means and do not understand how this confusing billing mess can even happen) is WRONG and using that arm of BC/BS only results in the charges being denied (according to a member services rep at BC/BS that I have been working with for over 4 months now).
WHY they stopped billing Anthem BC/BS and changed to billing "Blue Shield of CA" (which results in denials) remains a mystery.
WHY they continue to send claims to "Blue Shield of CA" despite the BC/BS member services rep telling them they need to contact Anthem BC/BS and bill them instead, as well as go back and get all the other wrong claims changed remains a mystery.
IF they are even going to do anything to try to straighten this out remains extremely doubtful.
It would not even surprise me if this billing snafu was intentional on their part, so that they can try to collect MORE $$ from me by bypassing my insurance than if they had continued to bill the correct BC/BS agency. Nothing would surprise me after reading stories like these below at the Better Business Bureau for one of their sister company names "Biotelemetry" (who if you've ever been billed by Biotel, Philips, Cardionet etc for INR you'll see they are at the SAME ADDRESS in Malvern, PA in the complaints below):
https://www.bbb.org/us/pa/malvern/p...telemetry-inc-0241-236041529/customer-reviews
In the meantime I have STOPPED using their "service" and returned my CoaguChek meter to stop the 'bleeding" at this point pun intended. From reading other various complaints on the 'net I fear they will continue to bill me moving fwd despite my trying to sever any such arrangement but that is a different story.
At this point I have zero faith in any of this getting fixed and being properly billed for the past year & a half and instead will find myself fighting with a collections agency.
I've purchased a meter for myself on ebay & will self-test moving fwd while at the same time I need to get a new family DR (long story), a new cardiologist (longer story), plus wade through a bunch of medicare confusion.
On the plus side after leaving nightshift and now leaving my very difficult/stressful job altogether my blood pressure has dropped about 30-40 points almost back to where I was 2 years ago although not being helped trying to deal with this either...
