After I had the Peanut, the hospital's billing company would send stacks of bills. The closer I looked at them, I realized they were trying to charge me for days I wasn't there, for procedures and testing that never happened and had multiple account numbers on what appeared to be identical bills. After an unproductive discussion with the billing company, I wrote the hospital and threatened to have them audited. I received a call from the hospital immediately and everything got cleared right up. Although, ever year for the next three years, that billing company would send me a bill for some random something, with an account number that was attached to several people, and I'd have to go through the whole process of threatened to have them investigated to get it resolved.
It made me wonder, how many other people just paid those bills? How many people who are drowning in debt from medical bills wind up paying three times what they should because unethical billing practices?
What brought this up? Well, I received a bill from the school for a school lunch...the Peanut always brings her own lunch. I talked to her about it and she very adamantly assured me that she has not bought a water, a lunch, a snack or anything ever. She knows she's allowed to, so she had no reason to lie. Plus my daughter narcs herself out, she's not one to keep secrets.
The school informs me that the kids punch in their own PIN numbers so there's no way someone else used hers. I know adults that screw up entering data, but a small child can't? WTF? Long story short, she wanted me to pay it. I said absolutely not. We argued. She said she'd look into it. Later, the lunch lady brought my daughter up to this woman, who realized she had never seen my daughter ever so perhaps there was a mistake. You think? I won't hold my breath for an apology.
My point wasn't that $2.30 was a big deal. The point is I'd bet, much like the hospital, they make hundreds of thousands a year on incorrectly billing people. And why should they fix it, right now this system is allowing them to get paid for food they're not serving. Big businesses are screwing us because we let them.
You have to advocate for yourself. Don't allow all these companies to make you feel powerless. If you're reading this, then obviously you have internet access...stop messing around with apps and start educating yourself. Learn what your rights are as a consumer. And stop paying bills you don't think you owe! Fight, ask for supervisors, write down the names of who you talk to, and file complaints with the government agencies that are suppose to police this stuff. They will call you back.
And before you say, who has time for that? Think about it like this....if you get a $5 bill you don't actually owe, but you just ignore it instead of calling and fighting with them, they'll send it to collections and in a few years that $5 will turn into $5000. If this post wasn't already so long, I'd go into the time and energy it takes to fix that mess.
Start advocating for yourself, you can't afford not to.
2 comments:
Good call! I don't always fight things any more, because sometimes the fight is just more energy and sometimes money than I am willing to give. My example is landlords. I sued one once because he would not return my security deposit. I won in court, but havent seen a dime from him, and this was 4-5 years ago. He does owe me for my court fees, but what good is that when he wont pay it. Ugg. Anyways, generally I agree with you :D
Believe me Raine, I totally understand, there are days that I know I need to make a call and argue w/ someone and I can't drum up the energy to do it...I wish people would just do their jobs, do the right thing, stop screwing people over and not caring. It can be so frustrating sometimes that it's hard to follow through. That sucks about your landlord, I'd imagine if you filed something w/ the court, they could do something...I know if Jersey, most court forms are online w/ step by step instrucitons. It's always something, isn't it? lol
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