Patient, Andrew Mahoney called the office and was very angry.  He had been in a year ago asking for an HIV test to be performed as he believed he had been exposed.  He asked that his insurance NOT be billed and that he be paid out of pocket for the testing.  Somehow, someone filed the claim to his insurance and it went unnoticed as the charges were against his deductible. 

His angry call today was in regards to being denied because the life insurance company received a health profile from his which listed the diagnosis of HIV from the prior year. 

Think about how this happened. YOU are responsible for the error! This is only one of many errors you have made and now it has made a significant impact on someone else’s life.

• How would you communicate with sincerity and extension of an apology?
• Discuss exactly how you would repair the damage.
• Explain what other code or codes you should have used to demonstrate exposure instead. 
• Explain what you could do in the future to avoid doing sloppy work and making careless errors.