In the “tiers garant” system of medical bills, the policyholder receives the bill and gets refunded by the medical insurance after filing a claim. I have always thought that the policyholder should first pay and then get a reimbursement by the insurance. However, I read the guidelines of an insurance provider and they recommend to pay the bill only after receiving a refund by them, in case they want to contest the fees with the medical provider:
But I had the other system in the past, I was never reimbursed by the insurance before the due date in the bill, so I always paid the bill before the insurer paid me.
It’s a pain in the butt, I won’t go with an insurer that uses that system anymore.
There is a third option - doctor sends you the bill, you send it promptly to the insurer, and they hopefully deposit the money to your account *before* the doctor's bill is due...
That's how we used to do it when we first arrived in Switzerland.... these days most of our providers do bill direct....
Isn't the Tiers Garant that the insurance pays the bill directly and bills you for what you own?
In any case, for the bills which I do have to pay I simply pay them for the due date and send them off to insurance. Never heard an insurance contesting a bill and once can anyway contest a bill after having paid it and get money back. A lot of time I don't send a single bill but maybe bunch them up.
For dental insurance which we have separate I only send once a year so I do one process.
