Bill received for service over 3 years ago

[Alnz]

I received a bill from a private medical lab for blood tests taken over 3 years ago, the labs were requested by a private GP, and we never realised the bill was unpaid as we never received an invoice.

It seems there was a miscommunication between the lab and the doctors clinic and the lab were sending the bill to the doctor and not to me. They said they have only received our address now, which seems a bit strange, so I guess the Dr. office was just ignoring the bill and bouncing it back to the lab.

I truly believed it must have been paid so I have pushed it back to the lab telling them it was paid, until I put a bit of time into going back over our health insurance claims and realised it must not have been paid as I never put in an insurance claim

Its a substantial invoice of over £1,000, but the issue for me is my Insurance has a 6 month deadline for claim submission, so this bill is outside of our claim window, which means I will have to unnecessarily eat the cost..

Am I within my rights to tell them its a bill they need to write off as it's their admin error, and it's over 3 years old, or legally am I still on the hook for paying it.

I would contact your insurance carrier, as surely when you claimed for your GP consultation, any tests involved would have been include in the GP invoice?

If you could claim would you have to pay say the first £100, and the Insurance the rest?

If so, maybe send them that.

What is the date on the invoice. Is it from three years ago or also recent?

I think ruminating over the rights/wrongs of this is futile because you are negotiating a settlement. You will get a lot of people who will say just pay it now but this company’s incompetence has caused you a financial loss (the insurance cover) so for me, they can do one.

I know you would think, but the doctors bill, which I did claim was for £300, so the labs were not included.

No, 100% is covered. I was thinking of asking the lab to issue a statement explaining their admin error and I would submit that with the bill, but knowing insurance companies and how they try to get out of paying anything, I think that might just be futile.

Speak to your insurer. If they refuse to pay it, tell them them under these circumstances their 6 month deadline is unfair and then follow their complaints process through to the financial ombudsman.

It's an unfair contract term.

Not futile at all, they have a legal duty to treat you fairly. This is not your fault and they should pay it.

I really don't feel like taking that on, especially when it's an admin error by the laboratory accounts department. Also it's an expat global insurance so I don't even know if the ombudsman would get involved.

Pay it then.

Well, I don't really want to have to eat the £1k because of their error, So my question is really if I can legally say to them, its your mistake, its too long now to claim it from me, you have to write it off.

The limitation period is 6 years.

Thank you.

Thats what I needed to know, just didn't know the question I needed to ask.

It’s a little more complex than just the limitation period as it isn’t completely clear from what you have said who their contract was with and how payment should have been made (often theses things are paid for by the doctor and invoiced on to you as a disbursement). Do you recall if there were any other tests, ideally though this lab, and how they were billed if so?

This is it, I don't know who their contract was with. I don't even remember the blood tests, but I do have the doctors bill and the doctors visit was the same day as the blood test invoice, so I assume I had the blood tests done then.

They claim they had been sending the invoice to the Dr. and then eventually (years later) realised the invoice should have been sent to me. Its the only time I used that lab, I assume, as that is the last time i visited that Dr..

So annoyed at the hassle caused by their error.

Thank you.

IAAL. Legally they can still invoice for unpaid work. You might have some sort of contractual basis for arguing that you are not liable for the debt - depending on what was agreed with the lab/doctor/insurer at the time - but ime the patient is typically asked to cover anything that is not covered by health insurance when investigations or treatment are carried out.

I think the fact you did have a claim put in, is vital here.

I think you call insurance and say that an invoice from that period was left outstanding…

Where in the world are you?

the GP visit and blood test were in the UK but I live in France.

Could it be six months from the date that the invoice was issued to you? In which case would Insurance pay even if the treatment was years ago?

No unfortunately, it's 6 months from date of treatment.

I called the insurers and they said in extenuating circumstances they can consider going to 24 months, This invoice is from Feb 2022, so well past the 'extenuating circumstances time frame. She did say I could send in the invoice with a supporting document from the laboratory and they can ask for it to be considered, but she wasn't hopeful. So annoyed.

But what about YOUR error? You submitted a claim for the doctor’s fee but at no point submitted a claim for the blood tests because you say you didn’t receive an invoice, Did you think the blood tests were free?!! 😶Why didn’t you follow up with the doctor when you weren’t billed for the blood tests?

I would contact them to say it's too late for the insurance company to pay. They literally spent 3 years getting it to you?! That's unacceptable! I understand delays happen but not 3 years! Ring them and tell them.

Obviously they should have billed you far sooner, but didn't you notice that you hadn't paid for the tests?

No, unfortunately I didn't notice.

Tracking receipt of medical bills in not something I have ever had to consider, this is the very first time I have ever NOT received a medical bill, so its an absolute curveball. It's not like I purposely tried to avoid paying a bill, the only thing I need to do is pay the bill when I receive it and send it off to the insurers to be reimbursed. I paid the GP bill, and got reimbursed, but didn't notice I had never received a bill for the Lab.