Insurance Companies and Hospitals

I got a bill from the hospital today. This was interesting primarily because I shouldn't owe anything. I already paid the hospital the copay on the operation...a couple grand we've been saving up specifically for the procedure. So you can imagine my surprise when I got a mailing telling me that I owed nearly one thousand dollars that I don't have for "outpatient services".

I called them up and the lady on the other end of the line didn't hesitate one moment before saying, "Yeah, there's a problem with your ID number for insurance." I dug out my ID card, gave them the number, and she typed quickly on a keyboard and asked for my employer and name of insured. Gave that information as well, and she just thanked me.

"So...I shouldn't owe anything?"
"We won't know until insurance gets back to us."
"Okay...I won't have this bill then?"
"I don't know. We'll know when insurance gets back to us."
"Well, do you have an idea how long that will be?"
"No, we don't know when another party will get around to processing the information"

Am I the only one so fed up with bullshit from these companies? I mean, there are people that can get information on my current purchases listed on my credit card, my employment history, what cars I drive...all of this can get pulled up from databases. Yet these gooftards can't seem to keep my insurance information straight, and when trying to get things sorted out, the insurance company takes weeks to figure out how to pull their craniums from their rectums.

Worse I have to wait a few weeks to figure out if I have some kind of thousand-dollar bill outstanding despite the fact I'm not supposed to have any more out-of-pocket. That gives the hospital time to screw up the bill that I didn't pay because I called in the day I got it to be told I have to wait and find out what's legitimate or not for billing, then I'll get a notice saying that I owe the bill plus interest when really I shouldn't have owed anything in the first place!

The whole system is screwed up and the most frustrating part is there's just not much we can do about it. Makes one want to scream. But that still hurts my incision...