Payment Due Upon Receipt

I still wonder how many people just blindly pay a medical bill without questioning EVERY step of the process. Several days ago I received a statement from Cigna denying the claim for a radiologist because he was out of network. I have learned to ignore the statements until I receive an actual bill. I received the bill so I called the billing office and said that my insurance denied the claim and asked how a patient was able to verify beforehand every single person who might be involved in a procedure and of course they didn't have an answer. I then asked if they had billed Medicare and she said no because Medicare won't pay on a claim that's been denied by a primary insurer. So I called Cigna, and their rep said it was denied because they received the radiologist's claim BEFORE the hospital's claim was submitted. Since Cigna now has the hospital claim, they are resubmitting the radiologist's claim. And I think these are standing policies, not affected yet by Obamacare!