Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield Supplement to Medicare review: Sending the participating provider copays to the patient

I now have 5 or more patients that are getting the copays that are meant for our participating Medicare clinic. But, the worst part is that this Federal Employee Plan is sending these patients poorly written threatening letters about sending the them to "collections" as they made an error in issuing the check to the wrong party.

Needless to say, we are spending lots of time handling the errors being made by this insurer. At times they are telling the patient that the provider submitted the claim wrong. That is simply not true as it electronically crosswalks with Medicare. This issue has not only happened in the last quarter of 2022, but I just received a call from a patient about a check issued to her for our 2023 deductible.

When speaking with the insurer about 3 weeks ago, I was told that the patient could not simply pay their bill, but instead the insurer needed to be refunded by the patient so they could in turn pay the provider properly. The key issue being that the insurer would not pass their audit.