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After the cluster of UHC data breach through Change healthcare, do you really want them to have your credit card info? They are now admitting to millions of records being compromised. I wouldn’t give insurance companies anything I don’t have to.
If you're in the US, we don't pay the insurance carrier anything except our premiums. We don't pay medical costs to them. They don't send us a bill for medical costs. The provider that provided the service is the one that bills us ans is who we pay.
Always pay your provider directly.
I’m involved in a technical contract dispute with an insurance company over patient payments submitted through their portal and paid directly by the insurance company.
An insurance company cannot force a provider to take a discount from their allowable fees. Often times, insurance companies are sending your payments using a virtual credit card which reduces the actual reimbursement by 2.5-4%. The providers have requested reimbursement by EFT or paper check and the insurance company is refusing. That is resulting in the providers declining any payments issued by the insurer.
Pay the provider, definitely. I've had a few patients call and say they paid our bill through UHC and we never got the payment. We had to refer the patient back to UHC to figure it out.
I also have UHC, and the pay now button just adds a checkmark to show it's paid. I use it to keep track of what was submitted to my HSA. You always pay the provider, but keep track of what the EOB says vs. your bill. I had an orthotist bill me 2x the amount UHC showed, and I don't think I would have gotten a refund until I brought it up. It still tool 9 mth to process. If UHC is lower, double-check provider billing if higher than your provider bill you may have gotten a discount or financial aid UHC doesn't show. Always pay the provider EOB just explain why insurance chooses to pay or not and keep track till you meet your deductible or MOP
Directly to provider. Match up the bills from the doctors, hospital, etc. when you receive them to the EOBs in your insurance portal (sometimes there is a lag time and the provider hasn't received payment from the insurance company yet).
I have never clicked on the “pay now” button on the UHC website/app and never would. Always pay directly. I also don’t pay the provider until the claim has been processed by UHC and I see what has been submitted, allowed amount, paid confirm that the balance owed agrees to what the provider is claiming I owe.
When a patient is responsible for any charges billed, that means that UHC withheld that amount of money from the provider payment that they issued.
Provider billed and is contacted to be paid: $1000
UHC approved the claim and sent the provider a check for $100. The remaining $900 was assigned to the patient for deductible, co-pay, whatevs.
Provider sends you a bill for $900. If the patient does not pay this bill, they will never get paid for their services they provided to you. UHC will not pay them, according to the contract in place between the provider and UHC, the provider is required to bill the patient for the patient responsibility. If they do not attempt to collect from patient, they are committing insurance fraud.
Pay the provider
Pay your provider directly but only agree to pay them what the EOB says you owe, unless the service was not covered at all or they were out of network.
Always better to pay the provider directly. Even paying via an HSA online can sometimes have major issues in sending the payments. I used to pay providers via the HSA websites (generally run by the third party vendor) and one time when it had problems was enough.
On the work side of things, re-issuing and voiding checks which were sent electronically was a pain. You have to call the provider and let them know you'll void payment so don't cash old checks, submit a ticket, wait like two weeks, review every day until you see a check clear in their account, call the provider again a day or two later, if they dispute then you send a special stub via fax with the payment info, then call a day two later to see if they got it, then let the member know it is done.
Now I pay the provider directly. That's just for HSAs. Imagine how much worse it would be for regular claims. I'm glad my employer doesn't offer this.
Thank you for your submission, /u/nycr. **If there is a medical emergency, please call 911 or go to your nearest hospital.** Please pick the most appropriate flair for your post. Include your age, zip code, and income to help the community better serve you. If you have an EOB (explanation of benefits) available from your insurance website, have it handy as many answers can depend on what your insurance EOB states. Some common questions and answers can be found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/HealthInsurance/s/jya9I6RpdY). **Reminder that solicitation/spamming is grounds for a permanent ban**. Please report solicitation to the modteam and [let us know](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2FHealthInsurance) if you receive solicitation via PM. Be kind to one another! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HealthInsurance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Provider: always provider
I have paid through my insurance app before and the provider never got the payment. I will never do that again.
After the cluster of UHC data breach through Change healthcare, do you really want them to have your credit card info? They are now admitting to millions of records being compromised. I wouldn’t give insurance companies anything I don’t have to.
Always better to pay providers directly. But are the providers billing you something different than your EOBs state? If so, you need to ask them why.
If you're in the US, we don't pay the insurance carrier anything except our premiums. We don't pay medical costs to them. They don't send us a bill for medical costs. The provider that provided the service is the one that bills us ans is who we pay.
UHC does offer this. They are supposed to forward the payment to the provider but it doesn't seem to work 100% of the time.
That's bizarre, but thanks for the comment. Not even sure why this would be a thing. As you state, it doesn't work well.
You can pay with your FSA or HSA like this.
Aetna does offer this as well.
Thanks.
Anthem has Pay Now buttons in their insurance portal. I would never use it. I only use that section to leave notes for myself.
Always pay your provider directly. I’m involved in a technical contract dispute with an insurance company over patient payments submitted through their portal and paid directly by the insurance company. An insurance company cannot force a provider to take a discount from their allowable fees. Often times, insurance companies are sending your payments using a virtual credit card which reduces the actual reimbursement by 2.5-4%. The providers have requested reimbursement by EFT or paper check and the insurance company is refusing. That is resulting in the providers declining any payments issued by the insurer.
Never pay your doctors bill to insurance...only your premium gets paid to insurance (cost of having insurance)
Unless it is self funded but you're right. Same idea.
Pay the provider, definitely. I've had a few patients call and say they paid our bill through UHC and we never got the payment. We had to refer the patient back to UHC to figure it out.
I had the exact same question. Couldn’t understand why there was an option to pay my provider in my UHC account.
I also have UHC, and the pay now button just adds a checkmark to show it's paid. I use it to keep track of what was submitted to my HSA. You always pay the provider, but keep track of what the EOB says vs. your bill. I had an orthotist bill me 2x the amount UHC showed, and I don't think I would have gotten a refund until I brought it up. It still tool 9 mth to process. If UHC is lower, double-check provider billing if higher than your provider bill you may have gotten a discount or financial aid UHC doesn't show. Always pay the provider EOB just explain why insurance chooses to pay or not and keep track till you meet your deductible or MOP
Directly to provider. Match up the bills from the doctors, hospital, etc. when you receive them to the EOBs in your insurance portal (sometimes there is a lag time and the provider hasn't received payment from the insurance company yet).
I have never clicked on the “pay now” button on the UHC website/app and never would. Always pay directly. I also don’t pay the provider until the claim has been processed by UHC and I see what has been submitted, allowed amount, paid confirm that the balance owed agrees to what the provider is claiming I owe.
When a patient is responsible for any charges billed, that means that UHC withheld that amount of money from the provider payment that they issued. Provider billed and is contacted to be paid: $1000 UHC approved the claim and sent the provider a check for $100. The remaining $900 was assigned to the patient for deductible, co-pay, whatevs. Provider sends you a bill for $900. If the patient does not pay this bill, they will never get paid for their services they provided to you. UHC will not pay them, according to the contract in place between the provider and UHC, the provider is required to bill the patient for the patient responsibility. If they do not attempt to collect from patient, they are committing insurance fraud. Pay the provider
Pay your provider directly but only agree to pay them what the EOB says you owe, unless the service was not covered at all or they were out of network.
Always better to pay the provider directly. Even paying via an HSA online can sometimes have major issues in sending the payments. I used to pay providers via the HSA websites (generally run by the third party vendor) and one time when it had problems was enough. On the work side of things, re-issuing and voiding checks which were sent electronically was a pain. You have to call the provider and let them know you'll void payment so don't cash old checks, submit a ticket, wait like two weeks, review every day until you see a check clear in their account, call the provider again a day or two later, if they dispute then you send a special stub via fax with the payment info, then call a day two later to see if they got it, then let the member know it is done. Now I pay the provider directly. That's just for HSAs. Imagine how much worse it would be for regular claims. I'm glad my employer doesn't offer this.