I had a complaint by Medicare over a billing dispute that was literally five years old when it was filed. That is, the billing was five years previously, and Medicare suddenly chose to contest it. Five years after the fact.

I came to learn, Medicare’s own administrative rules include a time limit on “look backs” kinda like the IRS. The audits can only go back a certain number of years unless fraud is involved.

No fraud involved, just a good-faith dispute. So Medicare wasn’t even following their own rules.

I called various politicians to at least get responses from Medicare administrators. It got me real names and addresses of people to contact, so some help. At the end, ultimately cleared, the dollar value in question was just a few hundred dollars anyway. The Medicare administrator wrote a letter back to the politician (who forwarded a copy to me). The administrator made me sound like some murderer getting off on a technicality.