UW Physicians

Dealing with the UW Physicians billing department is a nightmare. For the past 18 months, as I was going through treatment for breast cancer, I have had nothing but problems; they have not billed my insurance for 3 different procedures, confusion as to crediting my payments to the oldest outstanding invoice (which makes reconciling a statement next to impossible since they are crediting the payments to procedures they have failed to even bill the insurance for) and you have to prove to them you don’t owe for a bill. I have found one helpful employee and the rest, including supervisors, could care less. They just read their script that goes something like
«you owe $XX.XX». I guess the forget they are in a business that deals with people who are already going through stressful situations.
If you are receiving care through UW Physicians my advice is check every invoice very carefully. Watch for doubling billing or your insurance not being billed at all. Make a payment with a credit card over the phone and tell them exactly where to credit the payment. Lastly, write down the date and name of the employee you’re dealing with.
Let me also say I have had problems dealing with them over simple wellness visits and whether there should be a co-​pay (not with my insurance). So don’t think for a minute the problems only arise over complicated hospital/​treatment procedures.
If I didn’t appreciate the doctors and nurses so much I would go elsewhere. Unfortunately health care isn’t like a bad trip to a department store.

This review pertains to their billing service provider. They changed it sometime in the fall of 2014 and I’ve had nothing but problems since. They informed me that they can’t guarantee they’ll send me a bill every month. I need to make sure to make my monthly payment without receiving any notice. This is the only company I’ve dealt with that doesn’t send a monthly bill when you’re on a payment plan. The previous billing service they used did this without issue, and I made my payment without issue. It’s a really simple concept.
I just received a phone call from a collections agency stating that I need to pay my full balance. I just spent 45 minutes with the billing service (escalated my call to 3 different people) and another call to UW Physicians billing department directly. They say that they’ll work on getting it out of collections.
I’m so frustrated with this billing service that I’m contemplating switching to a different hospital system. It’s Seattle, there’s many other excellent hospitals I can go to for my care.

I was not seen at UW Medicine but SCCA. I got claims from UW Medicine and SCCA every time when I went to SCCA only even for an office visit. I was told they bill doctor’s visit and facility. I don’t care since my insurance coverage is good. For office visit, I just need to pay the copay but SCCA never asked during the visit, so I just pay whenever I get a bill.
You have a very poor billing system and I just got a statement yesterday the 1^st time regarding an office visit at SCCA in Sep but there is a message said «You account is past due; please pay …».
Also like a month ago, I got a call from your billing dept asking me to pay my copay outstanding total $ 50 including one visit in July at SCCA and this visit, each copay $ 25 and also mentioning about «before it goes to collection». For the July visit, I just received the statement 2 weeks before that call and not even this one. How come I got a call to tell me I have outstanding of $ 50 and mentioned about collection? I requested to talk to a supervisor, he said this is something new and it’s a courtesy call and asked we whether I would pay over the phone. I said I will pay online as usual and told them I don’t ever want this kind of courtesy call again. I did pay online the same day for the July visit but not this one since I not yet received anything. I called SCCA and talked to someone at their billing dept about this and they said because I don’t have an outstanding with SCCA and the outstanding bill is from UW Medicine, she cannot even see I have any outstanding with SCCA. I then talked to SCCA customer service and they said they never hear about this and will check with UW Medicine billing. I told her I rather pay the copay when I check in but nobody ever asked since I’ve been there for 2 years. I rather pay the copay then received this insulting call. I believe this is very annoying to patient who is deal with cancer treatment and not that I feel a courtesy call as what they said in the call at all. There was not even apology for disturbing. I believe you have too many manpower if your billing dept have time to call everybody who has a outstanding balance even before the statement mailed out.

Do not go here if you wanted to be treated like a scumbag by the billing department. They suck and I will never ever return. Good Doctors and Staff. Horrible back office people

This review is specifically on the Administrative Services Office at UW Physicians.
I had a doctor’s office visit last year with UW Medicine/​UW Physicians. I got a notice in the mail last year claiming that I would not be responsible for my office visit because the insurance would cover all the expenses. I didn’t think twice and put the mail aside. Then just recently, I got another mail from UW Physician claiming I actually have to pay for my office visit. I called in the Billing Department asking the reasons and sent in copies of both mail. They called back saying they made a mistake in the first mail, so the insurance would not cover the office visit after all. I was so confused. I asked so does it mean that when I paid for my other office visits, those fees could be incorrect too so I should expect to receive more mail like this? They were like this should be the only one they made mistake on. But if they already made a mistake like this, how can I trust them again?
I spent hours on the phone with them and had to listen to them repeat the same thing again and again. In the end they asked me to call the insurance company. I called my insurance company and the insurance said I need to call UW Physicians about this.
The nurses and doctors here are fine. They are great. Don’t get me wrong. Facilities are also good.
Just be aware about your bills here if you use their services. Clearly they make mistakes and not make any apologies about it, and patients have to bear all the responsibility and inconveniences (plus time wasted).