INOVA Medical Group

Review: In February 2014 I found a doctor's office near my home as I had recently moved and needed a physician. I called in advance to be sure they were a participating provider with my insurance, [redacted]. Once I got there it turned out they were not, they were in network. The receptionist who I had spoken with clearly led me to believe they were participating providers but it was only way after the appointment that I found out it wasn't true. At the front desk I signed in and the nurse (receptionist) asked the purpose of my appointment. I let her know it was to obtain a prescription for a birth control pill and she all but told me not to see the doctor I had the appointment with. It was a male and for whatever reason although he worked as a general practitioner he didn't "do" that. I figured she knew what she was talking about and although strange I agreed. So I switched doctors and waited 15 minutes or so past my appointment time to do so. In the appointment, which took at the very max, 10 minutes, the doctor prescribed me a pill and I was on my way. No exam, no labs, nothing. Just a brief chat and a paper. As I checked out from the office I verified that there was no co-pay. They told me insurance covered it and I was "good." So, I went on home. THEN shortly after I get a bill which is $263 before insurance. Insurance covered $163.53 and left me with a deductible of $99.47. I understand the deductible, that has to do with my insurance. It's the cost of the appointment to begin with that I am shocked about. $263 for next to nothing!! I have been in contact with various people at the office (billing manager, office manager and even the doctor herself) since MARCH but they each keep giving me the runaround as to why such a short and simple appointment could have cost so much!! The doctor tells me she has no control over billing, the office manager out of the blue stops writing to me and their customer support rep tells me that the account is no longer in her system and I have to contact someone else. This is after months of waiting on responses. (I have emails back and forth and plenty of unanswered emails saved) While I'm waiting on responses from each person they all seem to think it's someone else's responsibility and my statement was sent to a collections agency! This was a huge shock to get in the mail as we are not "that type of people" at all. We were in the midst of communicating when they sent my account to collections! This is unethical. Now the office says they don't have the record and if I have an issue to take it up with the collection agency despite months of back and forth with them. I finally got an itemized statement of the appointment. I assumed that additional procedures must have inadvertently been included on my bill. I obtained an itemized statement and much to my surprise the only thing on it is the appointment. The appointment was coded as [redacted] "Office Outpatient Visit Moderate- High". By law they have to be able to prove a number of things happened in that visit in order to charge you that much. I am questioning the fraudulent coding. I have been advised that this code is for existing patients and since I had such a simple and brief appointment there was no reason to use such a strong code. The use of this code to charge a higher amount than necessary to my insurance and therefore me is fraudulent.Desired Settlement: I would like the appointment to be re-coded to reflect the brief and simple appointment that I had. I would like my charge to be changed to reflect the amount I should have been charged since I was told they were participating providers. That was their error and I would not have gone to that office if I were not mislead into thinking they would participate. I also demand they revoke their claim with the collection agency, [redacted]. In addition I demand a letter stating that I am in good standing with their office and they need to report that to the 3 credit reporting agencies as well so this has no adverse effect on my credit at all.