I'm a cypher, wrapped in an enigma, smothered in secret sauce. Also, my name is Kev and I own this here website.
The following is a guest post from Angi. You might remember her from one of the million comments she’s left at SKOS, or from the epic A 2,063 Word Interview with Angi. Or, maybe you saw her in the video for the Macarena. Be sure to check out her great blog, We Sleep for Dreaming.
As some of you may know, I work in the medical billing profession. It’s nothing exciting, really. My day consists of charges, deposits, calling insurance companies, sending appeals, sending out statements to patients…and fending off nasty phone calls and letters from those same patients who don’t feel they should have to pay their bills.
Case and point: This morning, I was doing a deposit for the pediatrics clinic that I am responsible for. Things were going as normal, I was having fun with the “clickclickclick whirrrrr clickclickclick whirrrrr” of my adding machine while totaling up the number of patient checks we had received in the mail. All of a sudden, a handwritten note on one of the statements caught my eye. It read as follows.
“Nice. How long have we been going to [pediatrics clinic]?? How much do we pay annually already? And then you threaten us with collections over a $45.60 balance?? Bad form.”
Let me clarify the situation at hand. When a patient has a balance with this clinic, we send them a statement once a month, reflecting the most current balance, until their account is paid off. After 60 days with no payment, we send them a letter informing them that we have attempted sending them statements, but have not received payment; and whether it is an error on their part or an error on our part, please send in payment as soon as possible.
After another 30 days, if we still have not received any payment at all, we will send another letter – but we also keep sending statements once a month. We also send 3 letters before we send a patient to collections. So, from the time the patient accrues that original balance on their account to the time they are sent to collections, they should have received 5 statements and 3 letters asking them to please pay their bill.
So, when this woman wrote her nice, friendly note on her bill, she had only received her second notice – which means she has received 4 statements and 2 letters. That’s SIX FORMS OF CORRESPONDENCE asking her to please take care of her bill (and it wasn’t even a large bill – I’ve sent out statements for literally hundreds of dollars before, so excuse me if I have no sympathy for her, having to pay all of $45.60).
I am used to nasty phone calls. I am used to nasty letters. What I will never get used to, however, is the entitlement so many people feel when it comes to their money. “How much do we pay annually already?” Excuse me? In what alternate universe is that a viable reason to not have to pay what you owe someone?
“How long have I been shopping at XYZ Grocery? I feel I should get my groceries for free today.”
“How many gallons of gas do I buy already for my Escalade? I feel I shouldn’t have to pay my gas bill this month.”
“How much shampoo have I used in my lifetime? I don’t feel I should have to give Target any money this time around.”
And then…when those people inevitably ignore their bills, hoping that the doctor/billing office/store/gas station will write off their balance…they end up getting sent to collections over measly balances owed, ruining their credit, and feeling like the world that is out to get them has, once again, been unjust.
What these people don’t know is, we behind the scenes have no sympathy. We laugh at you. If nothing else, you make our boring, mundane jobs a little more entertaining. Contrary to popular belief, nasty letters don’t make us shake in our swivel chairs or crumple into sobbing messes on our desks.
So. The moral of the story, kids? Pay your bills. Pay them on time. Don’t be idiots.
Humor-blogs owes Angi’s company $3.84, but is now afraid to write a nasty letter.
;-) 8.21.08 at 5:06 pm:
I realize there are circumstances where people are trying really hard, but can’t pay all their bills. Maybe they got into a hole and they’re slowly getting themselves out. And this small $45.60 bill was one they deemed not urgent, so they tackled more pressing bills first until they got back on their feet.
That’s all fine and good. This happens. This happens to people I know personally.
But you know what? People in that kind of situation don’t write to complain when the company they owe money to threatens to take them to collections after repeated attempts to settle the balance. They don’t place the blame on THE COMPANY.
No, they instead think, “thank goodness (the company) didn’t already take us to collections…we need to make sure we pay them next week.”
People who DO complain like this have a false sense of entitlement. They’re the type who do not think their child should be punished for cheating on a History test. They’re the type who think they deserve a “get out of jail free” card because…well, just because.
I feel a rant coming on, so I better stop.
;-) 8.22.08 at 10:49 am:
Yeah, I agree with you. If we owe some money with other, we should pay it back. Just imagine if other people do that to you… of course you won’t like it and you need your money back because it is your money.
Avoiding and ignoring bills is kind of bad habit. People should not have any reason to skip bills, that’s responsibility.
;-) 8.22.08 at 11:46 am:
So maybe healthcare is a rip-off and everything involved with it is ridiculously expensive. That does not mean anyone is entitled to free healthcare or that they can just skip a bill when they feel like it. They should become activists and try to change things…while paying their bills on time.
;-) 8.22.08 at 2:29 pm:
I used to work in credit cards. I would often have people keep their own ledgers, who would spontaneously deduct any amount they didn’t think they owed. Then they’d short the payment by that amount each month, plus whatever interest and late fees accrued on that shorted amount. Finally three or four years later, after we’d already charged off the account and sent an R-9 rating to the credit bureaus, they’d call in all indignant about it, demanding to know why we were showing them as a chargeoff amount because they now can’t get a loan or a mortgage or whatever. So I’d have to pull years’ worth of statements and figure out what the problem was, and then write them and tell them, and then they’d write back and dispute it, and I’d write them and tell them that they had 60 days from the statement date on which the disputed charge first appeared to notify us in writing, and they hadn’t done that, so sorry, too bad. It was both fun and stupid at the same time. There’s a huge number of stupid people in the world who should never be given any credit because they can’t manage it properly. I’m glad that the current credit crunch is upon us, and I hope it gets much worse and stays that way. The only way to keep stupid people from hurting themselves financially is not to give them any money.
;-) 8.22.08 at 3:37 pm:
Kev :: I know what you mean. I know people who get into financial hardships, too – including people from that same clinic that I work with. But the responsible ones call and say, “I can’t afford to pay my whole bill right now, can I just pay a little bit each month until it’s taken care of?” And you know what we say? ABSOLUTELY. And thank you for calling to let us know, rather than just skipping over the bill and making us wonder if we’re ever getting paid. It’s not that hard.
Doctor :: I agree with you. Responsibility is a part of life. And those same people who don’t pay their bills would probably fly off the handle if someone didn’t pay THEM back what they owed them. It’s hypocritical is what it is!
Erin :: Yep, it is ridiculously expensive. I’m with you on that one. I do feel bad for people sometimes, that pay for insurance, and then on top of it their insurance picks and chooses what they’re going to cover or not. Sometimes it’s frustrating because when I do the billing, I have to code things the way the doctor says, and what the insurance will or will not pay is entirely dependent on which codes I use to bill – but sometimes there simply ISN’T another code I can use, and the patients don’t understand that, and end up with a bill for something they didn’t think they’d have to pay. But – like you said – they should find other ways to change things, not skip paying their bills to prove their point.
Marvin :: Oh, man, I don’t know if I could handle working FOR a credit card company!! I can’t imagine the angry calls YOU were flooded with on a daily basis – my job probably doesn’t even compare to that! I just don’t get people who do that – skip paying portions of their bills because they don’t believe they owe that money. You just want to reach through the phone and shake them and say, “Welcome to life!!!!”
;-) 8.22.08 at 9:20 pm:
Wow. That was one awesome rant! LOL… That woman sounds like a moron and should be flogged. Whatever flogging is… I think it hurts.
;-) 8.22.08 at 10:29 pm:
Corrina :: She probably doesn’t know what flogging is, either. Great idea! She’ll never see it coming!
;-) 9.7.08 at 12:28 pm:
You should write a note back saying, “We’re getting sick of you using up all of our resources at the clinic. How many times are we going to have to patch up your idiot kids? Bad form.”
diesel’s last blog post: Congrats, Jeff!
;-) 12.14.08 at 4:30 pm:
okay, yes people that HAVE the money should pay the bills that they owe on there is no excuse for them. But the simple fact of the matter is that people are not made of money these days. The economy is crap. EVERYBODYS losing their houses and alot of people are losing their jobs. Who is anybody to judge anybody when they dont know the full story? People have a lot of crap on there mind like… Am I going to be homeless? The goverment people are all idiots. I will never understand why they will automatically give coverage to people that arent even citzens of the united states and yet when we all pay taxes and really need it cant get it…Im a stong believer that you should pay your bills on time and if you cant try and work it out…but when you get layed off and lose your house….. what do you do? Nobodys perfect…im going to stop now…
;-) 12.14.08 at 5:26 pm:
Methinks Katia didn’t read all the subsequent comments to this post…