This was a contested bill. We finally settled on an amount [to avoid litigation against the biller.]
The day that we transferred my Mom from a Nursing Home back home they handed me a bill for almost $65,000 as we were taking her out the door, claiming that her medicaid had stopped months before. I asked them why the didn't contact either my Dad or myself their reply was "we don't have to."
To make a long story short it turns out that the Nursing Home forged my Mom's signature on a form saying, that she was "mentally incompetent" and was appointing the Nursing Home and their Attorney as he representative, and that she agreed to be billed for the balance that Medicare no longer paid. It wasn't even a good forgery. You should have seen the look on their face when I provided documented evidence that her signature was forged.,and that Medicare had not run out. Not pretty.
They said they would "allow" me extra time to pay off the account because of the circumstances. I handed them a subpoena from U.S. District Court and told them I would "allow" them to answer some questions regarding insurance fraud,and if they were lucky I wouldn't walk out of the courtroom with their next 10yrs. profits in my checking account, Medicare went after them too.
The settlement was a little less than $5,000. The payment is due today, and I am going to pay the bill personally, and get a written receipt. I can guarantee they won't be happy to see me walk in with that check.
We've fought over this for five years, and the settlement was the reduced amount and they pay any Attorney fees incurred by me in defending their claim. They didn't admit guilt in the matter, they claim it was a "billing error."
I'm a pretty easy-going guy, but try to mess with me, and I lose that attitude real quick.