Using Forrest General or Hattiesburg Clinic? Be Cautious!

We will drive out of town to see a doctor before we ever go there again! Let me explain why....

After you see a doctor, sometimes insurance companies take more than 30-60 days to process your claim and inform the clinic of the exact amount they will pay. The clinic however will start billing you as soon as they can process the paperwork. When this happens, sometimes the bill the clinic sends you is actually more than you will owe once the insurance pays their part.

How Reimbursements Are Supposed To Happen:
After I had Reid at Wesley Medical Center, I received a reimbursement check from the physician (Women's Pavillion) and one from Wesley Medical Center. Together they totaled over $1,200.00. Both places had underestimated what our insurance would pay and so they sent me the reimbursements within 2 months and without me even asking. It's normal for them to not exactly know what your final amount due will be and to have to send a reimbursement.

How Reimbursements Happen At Forrest General and Hattiesburg Clinic (Isn't This Illegal?!):
My husband Ben had surgery at Forrest General about two years prior to me having Reid. Everything went successfully and he had no follow-up appointments or any reason to return to that doctor in Hattiesburg Clinic . He liked his doctor and so a year and a half later when he had a completely unrelated issue, he went back to the same doctor and I happened to go with him. We were told by the receptionist not to worry about our $20 co-pay because we had a "credit" there from them overcharging us from the previous surgery because our insurance paid more than they had estimated. I asked what amount, and it was nearly $240! I demanded to know why we had not received a reimbursement check in a year and a half especially because we had no reason to return and use the credit there! If we had not just so happened to use the same doctor I don't think we would have ever found out that they owed us money!

They wouldn't issue us a check right then and there and said we would have to call another number to request that we get a reimbursement. I called the next day and let them know it was ridiculous that I had to call and request my money be reimbursed in the first place. I got the run-around and was told that since it was "such a small amount" I was continually put on the end of the reimbursement list because they always pay from the largest amount to smallest. So I guess until nobody else had a reimbursement due more than $240 we weren't getting ours?! I probably made 15 phone calls and waited almost 4 months before we finally got the money that they had owed us for almost 2 years!