Consumer complaint received 2018-11-22
Company: Efficient Recovery Services, LLC
State: NJ
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Medical debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
1 ) Date of service : XX/XX/2018 A XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  XXXX ) was done before XXXX XXXX XXXX for my son. Most doctors give a courtesy discount to match the contracted rate with the insurance company if the procedure is not covered by the XXXX  insurance plan. This doctor did not give me a courtesy discount to match the insurance contracted rate and charged me the full amount of {$400.00} instead of the contracted rate of {$220.00}. Was the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX   XXXX ) required in the first place prior to the XXXX XXXX XXXX based on the XXXX? 

2 ) Date of service : XX/XX/18. For XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, it was billed as XXXX, XXXX XXXX. While the XXXX  was XXXX, I am not sure that this was the actual condition and the higher rate billed was warranted for my son 's condition. This could be a potential overcharging/overbilling that was done to the insurance company/me as it may or may not be what was required to be done. Did the condition warrant this procedure and the rate charged warrant this categorization for higher billing, rather than a regular XXXX at a lower rate? 

3 ) Date of service : XX/XX/18 : The XXXX charge has been overbilled to insurance/me. My son was already XXXX  by the time we went to visit him. This was 35 mins. after the XXXX started. So, at most I should have been billed for 45 mins. ( rounding up 35 mins. in 3 blocks of 15 mins. ), whereas what I was charged for is 60 mins. ( 4 blocks of 15 min. ). The insurance contracted rate for the 15 min. block is {$120.00}. 

4 ) Date of service : XX/XX/XXXX : This visit has been billed as a XXXX XXXX, problem focused. I was not informed that the office visit is extra. To my recollection, I have not signed any document that says that I will have to pay extra for the office visit. This office visit should have been billed as part of the XXXX  XXXX XXXX  since it was not an office visit related to new problem, but was rather a follow-up checkup visit for the doctor to see how he performed the XXXX and how it was XXXX. This visit is generally not charged by most XXXX XXXX. This was just a 3 min. follow-up visit after the XXXX XXXX to ensure everything was fine and that the doctor had performed the XXXX as required. This should not have been charged, and in any case, wasnt communicated to me. The billing comes to $ XXXX/hr., which is atrociously high. The insurance contracted amount is {$60.00}. 

5 ) Date of billing : XX/XX/XXXX. There was a charge of {$5.00} applied to the account as credit card processing fee. This wasn't informed to me before accepting a payment via credit card. The doctor 's office fought this tooth-and-nail and did not remove this charge. After debt collecting agency got involved, this charge was finally removed. 

6 ) Date of billing : XX/XX/XXXX. There was an agreement to not send the account to debt collection/credit reporting agency since a payment was going to be made after I got back from international travel. A payment plan of {$100.00} per month was set up. A charge of {$39.00} was added as collection charges - 35 % of the outstanding balance - which is again atrociously high.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation