Insurance question about Chiropractor

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I wasn't sure where to post this, but this forum seemed to be the most active. I'll do my best to explain and I would love any advice about my current situation.

I was involved in a car accident, I got rear ended. The car insurance company of the person at fault declared my car totaled and paid me for it. I ended up having back pain and found a chiropractor that would treat me without payment and would later file with the car insurance company of the person at fault of the accident. I ended up going to a chiropractor for a couple months but after awhile felt like it was a total waste of time. The appointments would generally last under 10 minutes, one minute lying on a massage table with rollers to loosen me up, then about 4 or 5 minutes for an adjustment. So I stopped going. I ended up settling with the insurance company of the person at fault for the amount the chiropractor claimed. This is when I realized the chiropractor was charging around $110 per visit. I thought this was crazy since each visit lasted under 10 minutes.

I was never sent a bill though but I did receive multiple calls from the chiropractor's office asking for me to call them, or how I was doing. I ended up receiving $1500 roughly from the insurance company and since I was in a tight spot I spent the money on other bills. Now I have received a call from the chiropractor's office asking for me to pay my bill. I asked for an itemized bill so I could pay them, but I am wondering what I can do in this situation since I don't have the full $1500 amount. So basically would it be possible to have the chiropractor's office file with my medical insurance to try and reduce the amount of my bill? I just don't want to be sued for non-payment, but at the same time I am somewhat broke and can't pay this bill. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
 
This is when I realized the chiropractor was charging around $110 per visit.

You should have asked him what he charged before you went.

So basically would it be possible to have the chiropractor's office file with my medical insurance to try and reduce the amount of my bill?

That could be a problem. Obviously the chiropractor could bill your medical insurance company if he wants to. Or you could even send the bills yourself.

The problem I see is that your medical insurance company could have a right of reimbursement built into the policy that says you pay them back out of your claim for any money they pay for your treatment. Read your medical plan to see if that's the case.

If it is, you will owe the medical insurance company whatever they pay the chiropractor. That you already settled the claim doesn't matter. Your medical insurance company could just as easily sue you for payment if it pays it at all.

If you want to avoid the consequences of defaulting on your chiropractor bill I suggest you pay something toward it and keep on paying as soon as you can whenever you can.

The chiropractor might cut you some slack if you make small payments frequently.

Just understand that paying is paying, talking about paying is not paying.
 
You should have asked him what he charged before you went.



That could be a problem. Obviously the chiropractor could bill your medical insurance company if he wants to. Or you could even send the bills yourself.

The problem I see is that your medical insurance company could have a right of reimbursement built into the policy that says you pay them back out of your claim for any money they pay for your treatment. Read your medical plan to see if that's the case.

If it is, you will owe the medical insurance company whatever they pay the chiropractor. That you already settled the claim doesn't matter. Your medical insurance company could just as easily sue you for payment if it pays it at all.

If you want to avoid the consequences of defaulting on your chiropractor bill I suggest you pay something toward it and keep on paying as soon as you can whenever you can.

The chiropractor might cut you some slack if you make small payments frequently.

Just understand that paying is paying, talking about paying is not paying.

Well I actually never received a bill. Despite the chiropractor having my address, email, and phone number they never once until a year later told me I had a bill. I was under the impression the bill was going to be taken care of by the insurance company.

I called around and did some digging and it turns out the chiropractor actually billed $3,000 for my treatment. The insurance company paid them a little over $2,000. So this put the cost of each visit around $200, which is kind of nuts. I have yet to receive a bill despite contacting the chiropractor, but do you think the chiropractor would be up for negotiating the amount owed? I am also not very clear on your explanation of the medical insurance. I'll have to read over that a few more times.
 
Forget about what I said about medical insurance. Your first post asked if your chiropractor could bill your insurance company which implied that he hadn't. Your second post revealed that he had billed the insurance company, that the insurance paid the covered part of the bill, and you are now responsible for the rest. The chiropractor can't bill the insurance any more because the insurance has already paid what it was supposed to pay.

That you didn't know what the chiropractor was charging and you not getting a bill is on you. All you had to do was ask how much when he first started and insisted on a bill on your way out the door at the end of each session.

do you think the chiropractor would be up for negotiating the amount owed?

Sure, if you have cash. If you don't have cash you don't have leverage. If you owe him $1500 and you can offer him $750 cash in exchange for a WRITTEN discount of the debt, he might do it. No guarantees. If all you can offer is payments, you aren't likely to get a discount because there is no incentive for him. Bottom line, it's between you and him to work out something you can both live with.
 
Forget about what I said about medical insurance. Your first post asked if your chiropractor could bill your insurance company which implied that he hadn't. Your second post revealed that he had billed the insurance company, that the insurance paid the covered part of the bill, and you are now responsible for the rest. The chiropractor can't bill the insurance any more because the insurance has already paid what it was supposed to pay.

That you didn't know what the chiropractor was charging and you not getting a bill is on you. All you had to do was ask how much when he first started and insisted on a bill on your way out the door at the end of each session.



Sure, if you have cash. If you don't have cash you don't have leverage. If you owe him $1500 and you can offer him $750 cash in exchange for a WRITTEN discount of the debt, he might do it. No guarantees. If all you can offer is payments, you aren't likely to get a discount because there is no incentive for him. Bottom line, it's between you and him to work out something you can both live with.

My first post was about the car insurance being billed by the chiropractor. The idea is that I could use my medical insurance to lower the cost of the individual visits and pay that cost instead of paying the full $200 a visit. Since I was looking to get treatment after a car accident and this was one of the only chiropractors willing to deal with the car insurance I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to get treatment without having to pay out of pocket. This is why I am confused by the fact of being assured by the chiropractor that I wouldn't have to pay as the car insurance would cover the costs only to find out that the car insurance didn't cover all the costs. So the car insurance didn't cover the costs and I am stuck paying the difference. What is even more disheartening is the fact the chiropractor wanted me to continue coming to their office and there is no telling how long they would have tried to keep me there knowing the car insurance wouldn't cover the entirety of the treatment.

The fact that I have asked for a bill and haven't received one makes it odd that you are blaming me for not receiving a bill because I didn't ask for a bill every single time I went to get treatment. What am I supposed to do, stand there for however long it takes to be presented with a bill? For me the lesson here is that this seems to be quite common since insurance companies have a hard time seeing the value of chiropractors and tend not to pay along with medical professionals over billing insurance companies.
 
Something doesn't add up here.

Why would the car insurance only pay a portion of his bill?
 
I wasn't sure where to post this, but this forum seemed to be the most active. I'll do my best to explain and I would love any advice about my current situation.

I was involved in a car accident, I got rear ended. The car insurance company of the person at fault declared my car totaled and paid me for it. I ended up having back pain and found a chiropractor that would treat me without payment and would later file with the car insurance company of the person at fault of the accident. I ended up going to a chiropractor for a couple months but after awhile felt like it was a total waste of time. The appointments would generally last under 10 minutes, one minute lying on a massage table with rollers to loosen me up, then about 4 or 5 minutes for an adjustment. So I stopped going. I ended up settling with the insurance company of the person at fault for the amount the chiropractor claimed. This is when I realized the chiropractor was charging around $110 per visit. I thought this was crazy since each visit lasted under 10 minutes.

I was never sent a bill though but I did receive multiple calls from the chiropractor's office asking for me to call them, or how I was doing. I ended up receiving $1500 roughly from the insurance company and since I was in a tight spot I spent the money on other bills. Now I have received a call from the chiropractor's office asking for me to pay my bill. I asked for an itemized bill so I could pay them, but I am wondering what I can do in this situation since I don't have the full $1500 amount. So basically would it be possible to have the chiropractor's office file with my medical insurance to try and reduce the amount of my bill? I just don't want to be sued for non-payment, but at the same time I am somewhat broke and can't pay this bill. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

Just to clarify, you mentioned settling with the insurance company of the at-fault party for the amount the chiropractor claimed (Unclear how you landed on a number if you didn't know what they charged per visit).

To me, this sounds like the at-fault parties insurance company issued you payment which was to be used to pay your medical bill. Since you spent the $1500 on other expenses, you now lack the funds to pay the chiropractor?
 
Just to clarify, you mentioned settling with the insurance company of the at-fault party for the amount the chiropractor claimed (Unclear how you landed on a number if you didn't know what they charged per visit).

To me, this sounds like the at-fault parties insurance company issued you payment which was to be used to pay your medical bill. Since you spent the $1500 on other expenses, you now lack the funds to pay the chiropractor?

I don't understand insurance that well so I will try to answer you as best I can because some of this still doesn't make sense to me, lol. I am not sure how the insurance company came to the amount of $1,500 to be honest. Since I don't have a bill for any of my visits I am still not sure what the chiropractor was charging. I believe the at-fault party's car insurance paid a portion of the chiropractic bill, and sent me the rest, which was $1,500. So let's say the chiropractor billed $3,500 to the alt-fault party's car insurance, the at-fault party's insurance paid $2,000 to the chiropractor and sent me $1,500 to pay the rest of the medical bill. I used the $1,500 for other expenses a year ago and now the chiropractor is asking that I pay the bill. Which I completely understand and since I owe money I am willing to pay. I just don't have an itemized bill, or bill yet from the chiropractor so I'm not exactly sure what I owe. It could be the $1,500 initially sent to me by the alt-fault party's insurance company, or a bit less.
 
Also the reason I was going through all this was because I figured I might be able to use my medical insurance to bring down the cost of each individual visit so I wouldn't have to pay the full amount for each visit out of pocket that wasn't covered. I know Virginia has some laws about this, but I just wasn't very clear on the whole matter and since I don't have $1,500 at the moment thought there might be a way to bring the cost down for me even though I initially spent the $1,500 that was intended for the chiropractor.
 
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