Wednesday, November 20, 2019

A Lesson for the Electronic Age


Everywhere we turn these days, Western sensibilities encourage us to ‘go green’. Medical communications via email seemed a reasonable, outright expedient concession.

Well, that didn’t quite work out as planned.

The bills sent by our health network have been delivered straight into both mine and my husband’s accounts spam folders. ?!? This is how I ended up getting sent to a collection agency over charges we never saw.

I discovered the circumstance by accident, having tagged an unsolicited email as spam and opening that folder for verification. So now we know. Since this discovery, we have paid over three thousand dollars (US) for 2019 services.

~sigh~

Prior billing notifications dropped out of the spam folder, which is annoying. Worse, the billing summary on our network portal web page shows zero account information on file. ??? It's frustrating, for sure.

Do you ever check your spam email folder? Can you believe the billing department never called about the issue first?

-

16 comments:

  1. What a drag! I still get medical bills the old fashioned way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're resorting to that method now. :) Thanks for the support.

      Delete
  2. I check my spam folder every single day. I've found so many things that don't belong in the spam folder.

    Have a fabulous day, Darla. Big hug. ♥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good on you! Thanks for the kind well wishes. Take care!

      Delete
  3. I check my spam folder daily. Occasionally things fall in there that don't belong. I receive all my bills online, but I know to expect them, so that helps. Weird that they didn't try another method of collection before sending to collections.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good on you! And yeah, that lapse was disappointing. ~shrugs~ Be well!

      Delete
  4. I check SPAM daily. That is odd that they didn't call first.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm so glad you're smarter than we have been, and I agree. Take care!

      Delete
  5. I can't rely on email to get notifications for doctor appointments or bills either. I found the HCC bill for Linn County cats fixed last month in the spam folder after not receiving it as usual. It's frustrating. Half my blog notifications of new posts now go to spam, like for your blog and others, and that's frustrating. I can move it and mark it "not spam" but doesn't seem to help. I'm glad you "found" your bills but man alive, that's a lot of money. My brother is in debt for life from medical bills over his life long condition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry for you trials, and your brother's debt. They both stink. ~hugs~ Be well, my dear.

      Delete
  6. Check your Spam. Not only can billing *mistakes* be made, by the provider. I do believe that the political bias, of providers, make them Spam some things, for that reason.

    And the whole topic of algorithms... "A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, especially by a computer."

    THIS is a whole *New* bag-of-worms, which is happening all over the Net!!! Studies have been done, but how many have read them? Algorithms are used on Search Engines, on Instagram, etc. Seems it is being done, with SPAM, too.

    We only get Internet alert of one bill. The others come by mail. Which can be it's own set of issues. But...

    Courage to all of us, in this *Brave New World* of Cyber-this-and-Cyber-that!

    🔥💛🔥

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hugs to you, my dear. I appreciate your take on this and the information. Be well!

      Delete
  7. There are strict collections laws on the books, and sometimes they cannot call. You'd think they'd try 'real' mail, but in the end, it's a game of numbers. I hope you can negotiate a deal that keeps your credit rating in a good place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interestingly, that bill was smaller than the others. ~shrugs~ So I paid that and my husband took care of the others still in the network billing system. It's they who should have called! Oh, well. Thank you for the well wishes.

      Delete
  8. I know 'going green' has its own pitfalls.
    I do check the spam folder every day, or once in two days. Most of that come there are indeed spam.
    Regarding bills and other communication, they usually fall in the Updates tab in Gmail. Those that I get regularly, I move it Personal tab, and "tell" Gmail not to send them to Updates in future.
    Also, creating filters and labels (folders) in Gmail helps, so that you can find them all under that label (like medical bills, phone bills, power bills etc.).

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you for the great tips! I have folders but never even noticed some of these options. Too many options overwhelm me. Heh...

    ReplyDelete

Hope you enjoyed stopping by and please drop a line. I love comments.

Any and all will be published upon approval. Thanks!