Emergency Room Bill

[Butcher2510]

I had an emergency room visit while on vacation last year and have been fighting with the hospital billing company to honor my VA health care for over a year.  How do I go about getting me bill paid for by the VA.  Every few months I get a bill from the hospital saying that they have not received any payment.  I continue to call them and refer them to the VA but nothing seems to happen.  First it may have been my fault as I go to the Portland, OR VA so I referred the bill to them, but was ;later informed that I needed to go through the San Francisco VA as that is the region where I received treatment.  I am at a loss as to where to go from here.  Any help would be great. Thanks.

[broncovet]

How dare you go to the ER unconscious?  This is against VA regulations.  What you need to do is wait until you either die, (VA's first choice)  or get well enough to call the VA first.    It is unacceptable for Veterans to get sick and need medical care right away, the VA expects you  to be well enough to get into a very long waiting list for benefits, or they dont want to pay.

The long waiting list is mandantory, and, you, obviously just got sick for the purpose of avoiding the very long mandantory waiting list.  When you do things like this, you make it very hard for VA executives to earn their bonuses, as they have to pay for sick Veterans.  The VA's purpose is not to help sick Veterans, but, rather to ensure VA execs get their bonuses promplty.   

[Butcher2510]

When I got to the Hospital I informed them was from out of town, 9 or 10 PM, and that I was a VA patient and presented my VA health care card.  When I received my bill I was informed that the hospital had my insurance down as tricare (whole different insurance), how they got that I don't know as they made copies of my VA card.  I probably screwed up by not contacting the VA myself after I was released, didn't spend the night and was released late that night.  Contacting the VA was the last thought in my mind as I had to travel the following two days.  It is not a giant bill but I don't feel like I should get stuck with it either.  This is just a pain in the ass.  So far I haven't been sent to collections as I contact the billing agency each time I get a bill (every 3-4 months) and they attempt to rectify the situation, I am just ready for an answer.  In my home state WA I am covered under insurance from my wife's work as well but it does not offer coverage outside of the PNW.  Thanks all for the help, now time to call some of these numbers....again