sipplek asked:


We live in Maryland, and in March of this year, I had to take my daughter to the emergency room. I dutifully paid my emergency room co-payment charge, and the doctor’s fees. I was told the rest would be handled by my insurance company (Blue Cross).

A few weeks later, I received a bill from the hospital stating that laboratory fees ($66.20) and emergency department fees ($169.70) came to a total of $235.90. My insurance company paid them $238. An overpayment of $2.10. Now they want an additional $164.10 from me. Various calls to their customer service department resulted in various answers ranging from “Oh, I think there is a mistake” to the latest “Our contract with your insurance allows us to demand this even though the procedure did not cost that much.” Of course, I have never seen the contract, and my demand to be given a copy was ignored

My contracts law class was a long time ago, but I do remember that not all clauses in contracts are necessarily enforceable. Advice? Thanks!

health care billing