Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I am in medical bill insurance HELL!

Whatever you do, don’t get into an accident on your bicycle with a NYC taxicab. You will lose hours and hours of your life trying to get the medical bills paid. Here is the breakdown so far of my struggle. The bill is still unpaid and just days away from going into collections.

• Get into an accident while bike riding with a taxicab. Get taken the hospital in an ambulance and turns out I am fine just a bit beat up.

• Attempt to get police report two days after the accident. They only accept money orders or checks, which of course I don’t have with me so I don’t get it.

• Get letter in the mail from health insurance that the hospital bills will be covered but the ambulance bill will not be. The bill is $522.

• Call the FDNY ambulance and ask why they wont take my insurance, they said they would put it through again.

• My dad gets a call from them because they mixed up my number and my emergency contact number (IDIOTS) asking him to pay my bill. He tells them to call me.

• I talk to them and they tell me that my medical insurance won’t cover it so I have to use my car insurance. I yell at them I WAS NOT IN A CAR I WAS ON A BIKE! They say sorry, and that the cab should pay the bill.

• I call my insurance and ask what they need from me to get this bill paid. They said I need the insurance info from the cab and my car. Once again, I scream at them I WAS ON A BIKE! You are not using my car insurance info and since I was in the ambulance I don’t have the guy’s insurance info.

• I figure out that I need to get the police report so I walk 30 blocks to the station to get it only to learn that it is thirty days after the accident and the report has “gone to Albany”. I have to fill out a form to mail with a $10 check to get it in the mail. So I mail it out.

• Two weeks later, I get a letter from Albany returning my check saying that they wont give me the report and that I have to get it from the DMV because it was a car accident and it will now cost me $25!

• At this point, I start to freak out and scream that this system is beyond stupid and my very good friend suggests that I contact my elected officials and have them help. Since I know two of them, I call both offices and get two different people to attempt to get the report for me. A week goes by and I get a call back from both offices asking for more details. After a few days, they both tell me that an officer from some bureau will give me the report at the station if I bring my trusty $10 check (that is now dated two months ago).

• So I call the police station and they say that officer is only in the office from 7am -3pm. I had to beg my friend to help me to get the report by coming with me before work to sit in the car so that I could run in and get the report without double parking.

• I walk into the station with my forms and check and tell them what I need. Of course the person I need to talk to isn’t there so I have to explain everything to another officer and he says he will see what he can do. He disappears for 10 minutes and comes back with the piece of paper, hands it to me, winks and tells me that I don’t have to give him the check. Thanks officer for thinking I was cute and saving me the $10.

• With the accident report in my hand, I am hoping that the guy’s info is there so I can call his insurance. But of course the box for insurance information is blank. Thanks Mr. Bah.


• I get to work and call my insurance and they tell me that I have to get his information and that the police report is not enough. I can’t just mail it to them. Nope, I have to do the work.

• So a week goes by and I try my insurance again to tell them that I cannot find the guy’s insurance and can’t they just handle this for me. The representative says she will transfer me to another person who can escalate the process. I stay on hold for 10 minutes and the phone disconnects. I scream and pull out a few hairs.

• I call the insurance back and have to input my customer number and my accident claim number and birthday for the second time. The person who picks up asks for the information to confirm it. So I give them my life story again and they tell me that they have to transfer me AGAIN.

• Ten more minutes on hold and the person tells me that she will help me. Great! I tell her all the information and she asks me how I even got the police report and that she was in an accident with a taxi and it was so hard to get the report and why was my car insurance not involved! I WAS ON A BIKE! She was very unhelpful and told me to get the taxi driver’s insurance info.

• I turned to Google and after inputting an address, got a phone number and called the taxi company. I told them that I needed this taxi’s car insurance information. The woman put it into the system and told me that the taxi was self-insured and that there is no record of an accident. She gave me a number of a law firm to call because they handle the insurance for the taxis.

• I call the number and it’s a main office of the law firm so they give me another number to call. I speak to this lady who asks for my claim number and I tell her I don’t have one and that I just need the taxis insurance information to pay a bill. She tells me that there is no record of this and I need to fax her the police report. Then she asks me if I am from the ambulance company. Ughhhh, after I explain to her I am the bicyclist who was in the accident with a taxi she tells me to fax her the report and if I don’t hear from them in a week to call back.

That’s the long story for now. I have an unpaid bill and still no insurance information from Mr. Bah (the taxi man who is going to want to kick my ass for raising his insurance rates).

Stay tuned to find out what happens next because I am 100% sure that there will be more phone hours logged, more hairs ripped out and a bit more yelling at insurance representatives.

3 comments:

Ann said...

That is ridiculous.....worse than hell!!!

Anonymous said...

buy valium generic medication valium - buy valium from pakistan

Anonymous said...

http://www.achildsplace.org/banners/tramadolonline/#1528 buy tramadolwithout prescriptions - buy tramadol online mastercard overnight