You'd think that as much as they have their hands 
in one another's pockets, hospitals and doctors 
would share insurance information.

Guess what? They often don't.

Double-check with your insurance company and 
verify that the claim was filed on the hospital 
portion of your bill. Go through that explanation 
of benefits with a fine-toothed comb. A typical 
plan usually has a coinsurance of $50 on 
emergency room visits, then, depending on your 
plan's specifics, should cover a good portion of 
the rest of it. If there's an issue with your 
deductible not having been met, double check 
that. We're early enough in the calendar year 
that it's very possible it's legit for it to have 
been applied to it, but don't take it at face 
value. For example, in my state it's mandatory 
that all X-rays be read by a licensed 
radiologist, but that is almost always outsourced 
and the doctor/hospital NEVER passes insurance 
information on to them.

Bottom line, insurance companies, like everything 
else, are in business to make money. But that 
doesn't mean you have to make it easy for them. 
Crawl up customer service's ass (they work for 
you, don't be shy about reminding them of this) 
or get help from your work's HR department. 
Because of so much insurance fraud, many 
legitimate claims don't get paid, and consumers 
simply don't know any better.

Go for it, and I wish you lots of luck.

*heh* Guess that year doing bookkeeping and 
computer work for a medical collections agency is 
coming in handy...

~kea