I would like to file a complaint regarding Dr. Kirk Zachary, a physician within the Oxford HMO network.
Prior to the Summer of Dr. Zachary was associated with Madison Medical, a medical practice in New York City. Approximately 14 months ago my partner, Franc Martarella, received a letter from Dr. Zachary stating that he was moving to Connecticut and transferring all medical records to another doctor in the Manhattan area. Dr. Zachary is now located in Norwalk, Connecticut and his current address is 40 Cross St, 4th Floor, Norwalk, CT 06851.
On September 6 I got a bill from Healthcare Recovery Specialists. The bill states that my account has been placed with Healthcare Recovery Specialists because my insurance has been denied or made payment and the balance is your (my) responsibility. The invoice further states that I should remit payment within 30 days.
I have never received any itemized bill or invoice from Madison Medical or Dr. Zachary regarding this matter. All co-payments for medical services to Dr. Zachary were always paid to Madison Medical at the conclusion of every visit to Dr. Zachary.
I would like to also state that this is not the first time I received an erroneous bill from a collection agency regarding Dr. Zachary's services. Approximately three years ago, I received a bill from a collection agency stating that I had not paid a $15.Co-payment to Dr. Zachary. The letter from the collection agency threatened a negative entry on my credit report if it was not paid in a timely matter. Fortunately, that particular payment was paid in cash, I had the receipt and forwarded a copy to both the collection agency and Dr. Zachary. From that point on, all co-payments to Dr. Zachary's office were paid with a major credit card.
Additionally, I would also like to note here that my partner received a similar letter approximately six months ago stating that his insurance company did not cover certain expenses for services from Dr. Zachary and that he was responsible for the balance.
I have discussed this invoice from Healthcare Recovery Specialists with a representative at the Oxford billing department and they have told me that Dr. Zachary has not submitted an invoice for any type of services for the date in question, April 23 (or any date in April). Oxford told me that their contract with Dr. Zachary states that all bills for medical services from Dr. Zachary must be submitted to Oxford Health Care within 180 days of service. Further, if the invoice is not submitted to Oxford within 180 days of service, Dr. Zachary cannot send me a bill.
Today, I received a phone call from Charles; a representative from Healthcare Recovery Specialists. He told me that a mistake had been made. He stated that Dr. Zachary's office had filed a claim for this date with Healthnet HMO rather than Oxford and due to that mistake I do not owe them anything. I do not believe this to be accurate as I certainly would have heard from Dr. Zachary if they tried to get reimbursed from the wrong insurance firm. Oxford has been my insurance provider for several years and a claim was submitted and processed by Oxford in the month of February. Strangely enough, this was the same reason that my partner Franc Martarella was given when he received a similar letter approximately six months ago stating that his insurance company did not cover certain expenses and that he was responsible for the balance.
I asked Charles how Healthcare Recovery Specialists got my phone number and was told that it was provided to them by Dr. Zachary's office. I also found that Healthcare Recovery Specialists had all my personal information on file including my social security number.
Needless to say, I am very upset over this matter. There are two things. I find troublesome
It seems that Healthcare Recovery Specialists (on behalf of Dr. Zachary) has been notifying many patients with fraudulent claims stating that their insurance company did not pay their bill for Dr. Zachary's services, and they are responsible for the balance. It happened to me on two occasions and to my domestic partner on one occasion. Although my partner and I both questioned the bills we received and subsequently did not have to pay I wonder how many others are simply writing a check and sending it off to Healthcare Recovery Specialists.
Healthcare Recovery Specialists now has all my personal information in their files; this is the perfect scenario from identity theft.
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