Fun With The Bills

Here’s a topic I’ve been waiting to write about for the last week or so… Let’s pause from the psychology for a moment and look at the bittersweet reality of (insert ominous chord here) insurance billing.

As the newest intern at PGW, I had the pleasure of sorting through the mountainous piles of billing that comes along with treating patients and providing the services necessary for good mental health—services which I will soon need because of said billing. Insurance is a Godsend when the medical bills roll in. Not everyone can walk through the front door and pay out of pocket an hour later. However, it’s no easy task keeping up with the invoices and unpaid balances left over when the age-old problem, lack of communication, joins the party.

One month, you could have every balance paid on every client by their steadfast insurance providers and the next you’re raking in little to no money at all with question marks circling your forehead and dollar signs on the brain. Of course mistakes are going to happen but, as an intern, I really have to say… I’ve never sifted through a box of check stubs from an insurance company with so many zeros on them. Had there been actual numbers where there hopefully should’ve been, maybe I’d be getting paid for my paper cuts and soon-to-be psychotherapy.

You see, sometimes, insurance providers don’t cover the patients or sessions they’re supposed to and busy practitioners have little time to spend tracking down money in between clients. Naturally, the task falls to whomever can get it done—usually a trained professional. People need to be kept under watch when it comes to paying you and what is an insurance company but people who really like to keep their money? It’s a simple practice of the trade that in order to stay on top of things, you’re going to need someone to bug insurance providers into making payments like any bill collector would because it’s all too easy to “forget” about that nasty balance collecting dust on the table corner.

It’s a lesson well learned and a job not easily done but thankfully there are people to do it and ways to keep the business running smoothly. Just something to bear in mind the next time you’re walking through the door to any doctor’s office—everyone enjoys their payday.