Insurance Companies and Dr's offices

So, I received an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) from my insurance company in the mail late last week. I opened it, fully expecting it to be from my doctor I'd seen late in May.

It was not from my doctor. It was, in fact, from another doctor, for a visit on June 8th. The day AFTER my father arrived here. There was no doctor visit in another town, where I don't have a doctor.

I find the doctor's phone number on the internet (turns out the number there isn't right either). So I get the correct phone number and talk to a very nice lady who seemed convinced that I had been to see the doctor for whatever ailment.

I tell her my story, that I have never been to this doctor's office she says, 'but your file says...' she then asks me my date of birth, I give her that information...then she asks me, 'how do you think this is a mistake?' I ask her, 'does this "Donna Brown" have BlueCross/BlueShield", 'no, she doesn't', and when she asks me if I have been to this doctor's office, I tell her, quite simply, that I have not been to a doctor in Mesa. My doctors are either in Scottsdale or Tempe and nowhere else.

So, Colleen says to me, 'Well, let me check into this and call the right person to get this taken care of.' I say, 'Ok, thank you' and give her my phone number so she can call me back.

30 minutes later (or less), my phone rings. I answer it, thinking it's Colleen from this doctor's office I supposedly visited for what, I'm not sure. It's not Colleen, it's a lady named Beth from the billing company back East. She asks me if I'd seen this doctor, I tell her 'no ma'am.' She then asks me if I have had any x-rays recently, I again say 'no ma'am.' She then says, 'are you sure you haven't had any x-rays in the last month?' I again say, 'no.' She then tells me that she will take
care of it and reverse the charges and make sure the correct Donna Brown gets charged (and this Donna Brown doesn't even have the same insurance as I do!)

Well, I called the billing company back east and asked Beth how in the world this could happen. She explained to me that the person who entered the information did NOT check to see that it was the right Donna Brown, correct birthdate and insurance information. She said that she corrected it in the database. I asked her how could she make sure this wouldn't happen again, she said that she flagged the name to have whomever is entering data to check the name, dob and insurance information.

Well, you can bet your sweet bippie that I will most definitely be checking my EOBs from now on!