I had a health care service performed on me four years ago, and just recently the service provider is claiming for a payment. I have another company now, can I ask my previous company to pay?

As an additional note, due to a miss on the provider side, the bill never got in my hands and they sent the claim to a wrong company. Finally they sent the bill to a collection agency, this is how they found me and also how I knew about this bill.

 

  • Carin 9:06 am on May 31, 2010

    I would never say never – I do believe that many insurance companies have a time limit on when they will reimburse a claim, some as soon as 12 months after the service. However, I would communicate to them what you did in this question and see what happens. It cant hurt!

  • jlf 9:06 am on May 31, 2010

    Most insurance policies have claim filing time limits (typically one year). If the provider failed to correctly file an insurance claim within that time limit, the insurer can deny payment. The question is: what was the provider doing for four years and why didn’t they bill you before sending it to collections? I’d be raising hell with the provider – sounds like they’re the ones who screwed up.

  • Insurance Pickle.com 9:06 am on May 31, 2010

    No, you can’t. You usually have about 90-180 days to get the bill to the insurance company. Depending on whether you ignored the bills from four years ago or whether the provider dropped the ball would determine whether you actually owe.

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