This is another reason why you don't want Covid

Today I spent 27 minutes & 40 seconds on the phone with my bank explaining my situation with a medical clinic that I visited a year and a month ago due to consulting about breathing flare ups I had 10 months after I had gotten Covid (the ONE and only time). Basically, the medical clinic I went to (and have gone to in the past and had never had problems with) decided to contact me last month (over a year from when I went to this medical clinic) that I have a $160 bill because my insurance didn't cover anything. (Yes, I had ensured my insurance was going to cover it as well as when I called my insurance about this bill, they were basically informing me that a provider (the medical clinic I went to) has one year to bill with them (it was past a year when they did) & to contact the medical clinic and find out if they billed improper medical codes because if they did, then it's their responsibility to correct it (they had 6 months to do this from the time of service according to this customer service agent at my medical insurance company). When I contacted my medical clinic's billing department about this information, I was informed that I could NOT remove my debit card from their system (just push out the date to charge my debit card for that consultation) so while I temporarily did that, I consulted an attorney I work with and informed him of the situation. I basically wrote most of the letter (including doing the research about according to the Federal Trade Commission, for example, you can't charge someone's debit card without their permission, etc.) and then my attorney ensured the law research and facts were accurate and once I finalized the letter, he snail mailed and emailed the letter on July 3, 2024 to the medical clinic I went to. At first they replied back to my attorney requesting information and my attorney had to re-iterate to refer to the attached letter. I respond to him (he "bcc'd me on it) and I thanked him. Then the medical clinic emails me again notifying me of the outstanding balance just this time NOT saying they will charge my debit card by a certain date. Oh yeah, mind you I did have to call the medical clinic's billing department another time to get their contact information to send my attorney's letter and push out the date to charge my debit card (because the first time I called when I was informed that my debit card could NOT be removed from their system even if I no longer used it and that a manager, supervisor, or any other representative could NOT do so as I asked if a manager or supervisor could). Per my attorney's advice, when the medical clinic contacted me again, I emailed them back informing them I disputed the charge & an attorney sent a letter on my behalf via snail mail and email on July 3, 2024 (I even re-attached a copy of the letter in that email for their ease and reference). The medical clinic contacted me again this week informing me that they would be charging my debit card this Sunday and when I contacted my attorney again with my suggestion of basically verbiage of what I wanted him to say to the medical clinic's billing department and to research the manager/supervisor/director of their billing department to send them the copy of the letter that we wrote originally, he said he'd have no way of knowing that information and advised I contact my bank. When I contacted my bank today (what I discussed at the beginning of this post), the BEST option of the 2 presented was to cancel my existing debit card and get another one issued ($5 for it to arrive within 2 business days) versus their slower option. It was worth it to pay for the faster option as the sooner the new debit card comes, the sooner I can re-add automatic bills on it (I also had no choice but to cancel my existing debit card immediately BEFORE the new one arrives) if I chose this option (which I did). I knew it'd be a pain to re-add automatic bills on this debit card (as not all of them get added just by logging into online accounts), but again this was the BEST option of the 2 presented to me with my bank. The second option was to dispute the charge (if they indeed charged my debit card) and my bank would front the funds charged within 4 business days as a temporary credit, but it could take up to 3 months for a resolution & with this option there were no guarantees if my bank for example, decided to side with the merchant.

My point of explaining all of this: I wouldn't had even had to deal with all of what I described above if I didn't get Covid, right? Because then I wouldn't have had to consult at a medical clinic about breathing flare ups almost a year (10 months) after I got that horrid illness.

I will continue to pray that I won't have to end up paying this bill so that I can return back to this clinic (I liked that the medical professionals all wore masks) and/or for any other reasons.