Surprise Emergency Room Bill

The hospital somehow got confused when it came to billing the birth of our twins. One of the boys was billed to my wife's insurance (correctly), the other was billed to my insurance somehow incorrectly (I guess they asked me my name, but I never provided insurance info or anything else).

In the end, after 12 days in the NICU, both had essentially identical bills. $85K for one son. $89K for the other. Billed to two different insurances at the end of the day.

One was covered and paid for since obviously my wife had met her deductible, max out of pocket, etc. The other was sent to collections after so, so, so many frustrating calls, chats, emails, letters, etc to the hospital explaining that the son is not on my insurance, never has been on it, and never will be (my wife's job is much better for family plans), etc.

So one twin was correct. Completely covered. One son was sent to collections because the hospital can't figure it out. 21 months after he was born, it was finally corrected by the hospital. The irony in all this? The hospital would have got their money so much faster by getting it fixed. I was never going to pay something of that amount that I didn't owe, even after they offered to settle. But had they fixed it right away, they would have received their funds so much faster from the insurance company.

It seems little non-sensical clerical errors like this happen all the time. I think a lot of it is so automated that getting to someone who can see the issue (and care) is difficult.