Discrimination in the doctor's office because of anxiety?

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I got hit with a $500 medial bill and only paid $75 of it. I find out my Medicare rejected my first visit back in April which was my yearly wellness. I talked to Medicare and I find out they put in the information wrong so it got rejected. I decide to call my office and I get sent to the financial department and I tell them the error. It should be about two weeks. They put in preventative care instead of yearly wellness.

I looked up preventative care Medicare and I find out they do cover it if you have Part B. I looked up my Medicare information online and I do have part A and B so I called them back today to find out why was it rejected if they do cover preventative care and why didn't they cover it then if I have plan B and they do cover it. Turns out my doctor wrote to them telling them it was a non coverage visit so they didn't pay for it and the visit was $393 for a twenty minute visit.

The fact I am on SSDI should tell the doctor I am disabled and have limited income and decides to charge me a s**t load of money. Also the fact I feel betrayed because I felt she was helping me by putting me on medication and gave me a follow up visit and decided to continue the medication and decided to put me into counseling. But instead she rejected my insurance calling it non coverage.

Is this common among us with anxiety? Is it common for doctors to not bill our insurance for our mental health because of anxiety? I mean why would they even bother helping us then if they won't use our insurance even if Medicare will cover it. I am so confused here. My husband thinks it was a misunderstanding but I feel betrayed and hurt.

In the past I never had to pay fully for my visits to the same office. But my visit was not anxiety related. One was for ear wax build up and the other was for birth control and the other was wellness visit but I had no concerns then. This time I had skin concerns and I was having acne issues that were not going away when I usually have it in the spring and summer. This was also my wellness visit and I brought up these issues in office and got diagnosed with generalized anxiety than just anxiety NOS I have always had. So it went from a yearly wellness to preventative care and the doctor put in her insurance notes this was non coverage.

I would go to a different doctor.

I can’t really fathom why this would be a “non-covered” visit.

Next time, make sure it is “covered” before you get to your appointment.

Hope you manage to avoid paying it. I suppose it'll be OK because you're insured, and they'll just have to back off. It does seem negligent of the doctor to fill in the forms wrong and cause all that trouble. Probably not discrimination, but just somebody not bothering to do their job properly.

Frankly the US healthcare system looks like a nightmare to me. It looks horribly complicated just to keep track of what you're insured for and what you aren't. Maybe Medicare is a bit simpler, I don't know much about that. It's so different in the UK. The consultations are free, and you just pay a flat fee for each prescription item if you have a job (everybody else gets them free). Hospital treatment free. If you're working you pay about 6% National Insurance on anything you earn above £10,000 per year. Below that you pay nothing. No insurance questions, no forms, no worry.

It seems to me like a clerical error. Don't assume this was the doctor's doing, as most offices have administrative staff that do all the billing and interactions with insurers. Challenge anything that doesn't seem right.

I don't think it was in any way intentional because you have anxiety problems. It will probably serve you well to get in the habit of asking in advance of any services, how they will be billed. Under the Affordable Care Act, mental health services are supposed to have parity with medical services.

Switching doctors but not learning to be assertive with them will probably just find you repeating the same issues elsewhere.

The above is good advice I should have gave.