# Insurance Take Back, Can I bill the patient?



## Sally.Roslund (Jul 25, 2013)

Please Help!!!!!!!!
Patient came in in 2010 with Smart Health primary and BCBS secondary and they paid as such. Now Smart Health has taken there money back for 2010 DOS stating BCSB was primary and they were secondary. BCBS wont touch the claims cuz they are older than two years. My question is can I bill the patient for those services? According to Smart Health patient updated COB information in 2013 that caused this change.


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## june616 (Jul 26, 2013)

Yes, I would bill the patient in this situation since it is a problem with their insurance coverage that is causing the balance on the acct. It was not an error on the practice side of things so you are within your rights to collect payment for the service that was provided to the patient. It's rare, but I know you how feel billing a patient for such an old dos but unfortunately sometimes it happens


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## Sally.Roslund (Jul 26, 2013)

Thanks so much, that's what I was thinking also but wanted some confirmation.


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## Miller913 (Jul 30, 2013)

I agree about billing the patient, but was the cob updated correctly for 2010? We had this happen alot with our peds pt's. Then when the parent got the bill they were upset because say their father's ins was primary until such & such date, for whatever reason. I then informed the parent that they need to update cob correctly. If cob was updated correctly & BCBS should be primary, we would try to appeal with BCBS showing that Smart Health pd then recovered.


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## MarcusM (Aug 1, 2013)

*Involve the patient*

Had this happen a few times. Involve the patient....it expedites the process when an irate insured calls his plan to complain...even better is get the patient and their hr dept from the employer.


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